Australia news live: Shorten says Trump treating free world like ‘a reality show’; inquiry into Northern Beaches hospital after boy’s death
Coalition MP says Australia should use critical minerals access as ‘leverage point’ with Trump on tariffs
Kevin Hogan says Australia should use more of its “leverage points” to negotiate an exemption from the Trump administration’s trade tariffs.
The Coalition MP has been speaking on ABC Radio National Breakfast, a few days after the US announced it would reject Australia’s plea to be exempt from 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.
He points to Australia’s critical minerals supply as an example of something Australia could use as a bargaining tool, saying:
We have some great critical minerals that are very important to them, especially some that they can’t access.
We actually believe we have more leverage points with America now [than] a few years ago.
Hogan says the Coalition believes it is “very important” that the negotiations be done “leader to leader” and he says the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, should go to the US to speak to Donald Trump.
He said:
That’s how Trump … operates. And it’s very disappointing that our leader hasn’t found the will to go over and do that.
A strong leader would make sure that they got that meeting.
Key events
Bill Shorten suggests retaliation against Trump administration’s tariffs
Former opposition leader Bill Shorten says Donald Trump is leading the free world “as if it’s a reality TV show” and his administration’s tariff regime won’t “help anyone”.
Shorten, now the chancellor of the University of Canberra, was on Seven’s Sunrise earlier this morning where he said the tariffs were “unjustified”.
Like ordinary civilians, which I am these days, it’s like drinking from a fire hose watching Donald Trump lead the free world as if it’s a reality TV show.
The prime minister has correctly said – and I think Peter Dutton has agreed with him – these tariffs are unjustified.
We don’t dump our material in America. We pay first-world wages. So our aluminium and steel industry – and I used to be their union leader – doesn’t deserve this treatment from our ally.
Shorten also suggested Australia should consider retaliatory measures if the US refused to budge, saying:
Tariffs don’t help anyone, but if President Trump thinks he can push other countries around, sooner or later you have to push back.
At the end of the day, if they keep putting tariffs on all of our goods, then we’ve got to reciprocate dollar for dollar, tariff for tariff.
This is not the argument that Australia wants to be in, but I’m confident this government, and I think all reasonable Australians, will say at a certain point, “You push us, we push you”.
To lighten your Friday morning, James Colley has made a video featuring the best bits of the pre-election campaign so far.
You can watch it here:
Inquiry will also look at previous scrutiny of Northern Beaches hospital operations
The inquiry will also consider the how the findings and recommendations of the last parliamentary inquiry into the Northern Beaches hospital in 2019, which looked at its operation and management, have been implemented.
Park said the inquiry was a commitment he made to Joe Massa’s parents “to undertake the necessary reviews to understand how they and their son have been let down, as well as to learn what changes need to be made to prevent such a tragedy from occurring again”.
I am grateful to the Massas for their generosity in time and spirit in working with us to honour Joe’s memory.
The chair of the committee holding the inquiry, Jason Yat-Sen Li, said they would announce the opening of submissions as well as hearing dates in due course.
Natasha May
Parliamentary inquiry into Northern Beaches hospital announced
The parliamentary inquiry into Northern Beaches hospital, which the NSW health minister promised would take place after the death of two-year-old Joe Massa at the hospital’s emergency ward in September, has been announced.
The NSW Health minister, Ryan Park, confirmed this morning the state parliament’s Public Accounts Committee will conduct the inquiry into the safety and quality of health services provided by Northern Beaches hospital.
The chair of the committee, Jason Yat-Sen Li, said “I am determined to get this inquiry under way as quickly as possible, but I also want to get it right.
The scope of the inquiry will stretch back to the hospital’s start as a privately operated facility in October 2018, and will consider incidents at the hospital, including those that are the subject of serious adverse event reviews, how the hospital responded, and the extent to which it implemented changes prompted by those incidents.
The inquiry will look at how the hospital supports patient and carer escalation, including the REACH protocol that allows relatives and carers to trigger an independent review of a patient’s treatment – an initiative Park acknowledge was “insufficiently accessible” in the case of Joe Massa.
It will also examine the adequacy of systems and processes designed to prevent adverse events, as well as the staff standards and capabilities.
Scott Morrison weighs in on Trump’s actions relating to Ukraine war
Former prime minister Scott Morrison says he doesn’t believe a Trump presidency will alter US intelligence sharing relationships with its allies, including Australia.
In an interview with Times Radio, Morrison has weighed in on the Trump administration’s potential effect on the Five Eyes partnership given his position on the war in Ukraine.
After more than three years of war after Russia invaded its smaller neighbour, Trump has outlined a ceasefire deal, which the Kremlin has yet to agree to.
Morrison said it was a “misread” to interpret this as Trump being prepared to “go it alone”.
I think what the president is trying to do here is end a war that has reached a stalemate.
For the last three years we have been engaged in this at terrible cost to everybody involved – most significantly, the people of Ukraine.
Morrison said he didn’t think Trump put the Five Eyes intelligence sharing arrangement between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US in jeopardy.
He said:
You don’t go into all of these particular events as a collective; everybody has their own capabilities, and there are ways that that is shared between all of us.
But how individual parties share what they have access to with third parties outside the agreement is a matter for them.
Thousands of people in Qld remain without power after ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred
Thousands of households remain without power in south-east Queensland nearly a week after ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred made landfall.
Energex, the Queensland government-owned electricity company that distributes power to 1.5m homes and businesses across the region, says 17,101 customers were still without power as of 7am, this morning.
A massive clean-up operation is under way after severe weather associated with Alfred hit the state.
You can read more about that here:
Coalition’s Hogan: Aukus funding could be tariff bargaining chip
Hogan says Australia could use also its funding for the Aukus security partnership to negotiate US tariffs.
We have the $800m Aukus cheque that [defence minister] Richard Marles just went over and threw on the table as part of the deal with Aukus.
Hogan’s comments come after Australia made its first $800m (US $500m) payment under the Aukus defence agreement, under which it will acquire nuclear-powered submarines.
Reuters reported that the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, said president Donald Trump supports the trilateral security agreement between Australia, the US and the UK.
Under the pact, Australia will pay the US $4.78bn to boost the capacity of the US submarine industry, and Washington will sell several Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia in the early 2030s.
Britain and Australia intend to later build a new Aukus-class submarine as part of the agreement.
You can read more here:
Coalition MP says Australia should use critical minerals access as ‘leverage point’ with Trump on tariffs
Kevin Hogan says Australia should use more of its “leverage points” to negotiate an exemption from the Trump administration’s trade tariffs.
The Coalition MP has been speaking on ABC Radio National Breakfast, a few days after the US announced it would reject Australia’s plea to be exempt from 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.
He points to Australia’s critical minerals supply as an example of something Australia could use as a bargaining tool, saying:
We have some great critical minerals that are very important to them, especially some that they can’t access.
We actually believe we have more leverage points with America now [than] a few years ago.
Hogan says the Coalition believes it is “very important” that the negotiations be done “leader to leader” and he says the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, should go to the US to speak to Donald Trump.
He said:
That’s how Trump … operates. And it’s very disappointing that our leader hasn’t found the will to go over and do that.
A strong leader would make sure that they got that meeting.
Opposition energy spokesperson O’Brien spruiks Coalition’s gas policy
The opposition’s energy spokesperson, Ted O’Brien, has talked up the importance of gas to ensure electricity supply “in the short-term”.
O’Brien has been interviewed on ABC News Breakfast, after the energy regulator’s announcement yesterday that it was expecting power bills for residential customers to increase by between 2.5% and 8.9% – depending on the region – compared with last year.
Asked what the Coalition would do in the short-term to bring down power bills, O’Brien said:
In the short-term, the priority has to be gas.
Gas can be expensive but when it comes to electricity, you don’t need a lot of gas, you just need it in the right volumes at the right time, at the right place and at the right price.
The Coalition’s approach is we need to pour more gas into the market.
O’Brien pointed to the Coalition’s policy of increasing domestic gas production for domestic supply.
He said:
The Coalition believes we need to use Australian gas for Australians first, that has to be the priority.
The only way you get prices down to have cheap, clean and consistent energy in this country is a balanced energy mix: renewables, gas and, as coal retires, nuclear.
Guests evacuated after Surfers Paradise hotel catches on fire
Guests at a hotel in Surfers Paradise were evacuated overnight after the building caught fire.
A spokesperson for the Queensland Fire Department said six crews responded to reports of a fire at the Hilton Hotel Surfers Paradise at about 1.50am.
A fire had started on the roof, with falling embers starting another fire on the pool deck, the spokesperson said.
Fire crews had extinguished the pool deck fire by about 2.20am and put out the roof fire by about 2.40am, with guests allowed to return to their rooms at about 3am.
The spokesperson said the fire was “relatively small” and they could not say what caused it.
There were no reports of any injuries, the spokesperson said.
Catie McLeod
Hello, I’ll be taking you through today’s news until this afternoon. I hope you have a good morning.
Coalition policies gets the Full Story treatment
Staying with the Coalition and politics, today’s Newsroom edition of the Full Story podcast looks at this very issue.
Reged Ahmad talks to Guardian Australia’s editor-in-chief Lenore Taylor, head of newsroom Mike Ticher and national news editor Jo Tovey about whether Peter Dutton’s missteps and the Coalition’s policy problems will start to add up in the minds of voters.
Check it out here:
Some Coalition MPs worrying about opposition’s election policy offering
Some Coalition MPs are concerned that they will start the federal election campaign without a proper policy to sell to households feeling the pinch from the cost-of-living crisis.
Yesterday, Peter Dutton again played down the prospect of income tax cuts and today we are reporting on a new issue where he might come under pressure himself, namely his plan to crack down on working from home.
He has been quite outspoken about making federal staff work from the office and the Coalition launched the policy last week.
But some think it may not be properly “thought through” because working from home is popular with a lot of voters, and appeals especially to working professional women of the type the Coalition has to win back in teal seats.
Read our full story here:
We’re up against a deep, ideological, strategic US view, says Rudd
On the ABC last night, Australia’s ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd said he would continue fighting for tariff exemptions for Australian goods despite what appears to be an uphill battle in Washington.
Optimism about winning a carve out seems to be fading, with Rudd admitting negotiations have been difficult and pointing out that America’s historical trade surplus with Australia had not cut any ice.
Rudd said:
We’re up against a deep, ideological, strategic view of this Trump administration. These are deep-seated, fundamental changes in this different America, which every one of the 36 countries who negotiated tariff exemptions on steel and aluminium last time round, back in 2017, have had to contend with this time round.
Rudd also revealed that he had asked Anthony Albanese to make a second call to Trump this week but “by the time the decision was taken, late Tuesday, we had not been able to secure that time”.
I think it stands to reason we should question whether, in fact, even this request for a late telephone call would have necessarily made a material difference.
Read more:
High temperatures expected in south-eastern Australia
Much of south-east Australia is in for a hot weekend as temperatures head into the 30s in Sydney. Coastal suburbs will see about 31C on the guage while it could be up to 35C in the west.
It will be especially hot in the southern region of New South Wales where it is expected to be about 37C in Wagga Wagga.
Melbourne will be milder, at about 27C but rural Victoria could see high 30s north of the ranges, according to Angus Hines of the Bureau of Meteorology.
South Australia will also be very hot for this time of year with 35C in Adelaide.
The BoM released its long-range forecast for April through to June overnight and predicts that we can expect warmer than average days and some unusually high daytime temperatures across the country.
The same goes for night-time temperatures with warmer than average readings “very likely” and an “increased chance” of unusually high overnight temperatures.
Rainfall-wise, levels are expected to be within the typical range for the period across most of eastern, central and southern Australia, and above average across parts of the north.
States brace for hearing new GST carve-up plan
State and territory leaders sweating on their take of the GST will finally learn their fate as the new carve-up is revealed in the lead-up to the federal election, reports Australian Associated Press.
The commonwealth grants commission will hand down recommendations to the treasurer Jim Chalmers on Friday about how to distribute the tax revenue for the 2025-26 financial year.
The independent authority has adopted a new way of assessing how much each jurisdiction gets as the method is reviewed every five years, but the verdict in 2025 comes with the added attention of a federal election on the horizon.
The carve-up frequently comes under fiery criticism from state and territory leaders.
Labor leaders in the two most populous states got stuck into a war of words with each other in 2024 when the NSW premier, Chris Minns, described Victoria as a “welfare state”.
Former Victorian treasurer Tim Pallas returned fire, claiming Minns did not understand the GST system.
It’s also a major talking point in resource-heavy Western Australia, which benefited from a boost in 2018 under the Coalition.
Anthony Albanese vowed not to change the arrangement in the west and in February 2024 even signed the promise on the arm of a journalist while visiting Perth.
NSW and Victoria have been pushing for a per-capita distribution while Queensland’s former deputy premier Cameron Dick hit out at the commission’s decision to examine how coal royalty revenue is calculated.
States and territories rely on GST for funding for financial support to fund major expenditure including health, education, infrastructure and housing.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Catie McLeod will be at the controls.
Kevin Rudd has vowed to keep fighting for exemptions from US tariffs, but told 7.30 last night that he and his “team Australia” has already “thrown everything” at talks with the Trump administration. Australia’s ambassador to the US told the ABC that the talks with the White House commerce team had been “tough”. Farmers fear they could be next in line for trade levies on Australia’s $6.2bn in meat exports, while Trump is slapping a 200% levy on European wine.
We have heard grumbling this week from Coalition insiders unhappy about what they see as an inadequate economic policy offering going into the federal election. Today we’re reporting that some in the Liberal and National camp fear that Peter Dutton’s vow to crack down on working from home policy is not “fully thought through” and could hamper the drive to win back teal seats.
Much of south-east Australia will experience very warm weather over the weekend with some inland parts of Victoria and NSW approaching 40C. The Bureau of Meteorology’s long-term forecast suggests the country is in for spells of “unusually” warm weather in the months to June.
The annual carve-up of GST revenue between the states is a pretty dry subject, but arouses much passion among premiers keen to balance their budgets (or assign blame for red ink). More on this soon.
