Topics: Albanese meeting with President Xi; Australia-US relationship;
09:40AM AEDT
19 November 2024
Laura Jayes: Joining me now is the Shadow Foreign Minister, Simon Birmingham. Thanks so much for your time. Is it believable that they just didn’t talk about Trump at all in any in-depth way, skirted around the edges?
Simon Birmingham: Well, I think it’s believable that they didn’t talk about Donald Trump, but Anthony Albanese was asked if they indirectly talked about his tariff plans. And it seems pretty clear from what’s been said that they definitely talked about the importance of trade and the importance of keeping open trade between our countries. That’s entirely appropriate for them to talk about. But it’s quite misleading of the PM to have responded with a flat no to that question, given it’s implicit in that very topic, that it is in part responsive to the policies that Donald Trump has announced and is taking forward. But when it comes to trade, and particularly the comments we saw from President Xi Jinping about keeping open trade, they’re comments that will certainly grate a little with those Australian businesses who were on the receiving end of China’s unwarranted tariffs against Australia and the attempted economic coercion. But the reality is, in looking forward, we should absolutely aspire firstly to our region remaining as economically open as possible because trade, openness, investment flows and the opening up of our region have driven immense economic benefits across this region and the two central pillars that can enable us to ensure this region stays open, are two of the biggest trade deals in the world that were secured by the previous Coalition government, the CPTPP, the Trans-Pacific partnership, and RCEP, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. And if you overlay them, they give us the most powerful network of free trade agreements, encompassing so many of our partners across all of the ASEAN nations China, Korea, Japan, and, of course, key partners as well like Canada, Mexico, New Zealand. And that’s a really powerful, open free trade bloc. And that should be a priority for us to make sure we preserve.
Laura Jayes: Yeah, sure but Trump has shown that he doesn’t necessarily like those groupings. He’s likely to take America in his own direction. If Trump does what he says he’s going to do or promised during the election campaign, which is impose tariffs, protect American jobs and industry, what material effect is that going to have on us? Higher interest rates in the short-term. But what about the long-term?
Simon Birmingham: So, LJ, firstly, indeed we have to accept President Trump’s been elected, clearly elected, and his policies are to apply a number of tariffs in the US context. Now, from an Australian perspective, as well as preserving our regional openness, the other thing the Albanese government should be doing is responding to those Trump policies by seeking to ensure Australia is mounting the strongest possible case about the trade surplus the United States enjoys with Australia, and that as occurred under the previous Coalition government, provides strong grounds, along with the need for both our countries to be as strong as possible for Australia to get exemptions from proposed Trump administration trade tariffs. And it’s one of the reasons why I’ve suggested that Prime Minister Albanese should have been using his time in South America to also seek a meeting, an early meeting with President Trump. The two of them haven’t met before. This would be an opportunity for him to divert up to Florida before coming back to Australia and potentially have early engagement with the president elect, and put Australia’s case as strongly as we should for why us, Australia, as such a key ally and partner of the US, deserves that type of outcome and that it’s warranted and justified given the trade surplus that the US has with Australia.
Laura Jayes: We know how instrumental Joe Hockey was when he was ambassador in Washington in avoiding or getting Australia exempt from some of the tariffs or new rules that Donald Trump wanted to apply. He did the work with the Trump team when no one thought he was going to win. Enter now we have this re-emergence of Donald Trump for another four years. We have Kevin Rudd in Washington deleting mean tweets. Is he the right person in Washington to get through to the Trump administration on our behalf?
Simon Birmingham: Well, it takes a concerted effort. And so Joe Hockey did a fantastic job and deserves credit. Malcolm Turnbull was clear and strong in his arguments at the time, and Scott Morrison and the rest of us had to continue that through that term. I can well remember personally handing Donald Trump a graph showing the US trade surplus when Scott Morrison and I met with him in Osaka at the G20 summit there a number of years ago. And so, the continuity of argument and put at all levels is important when it comes to Kevin Rudd. We’ve been clear we want to put Australia’s national interests first. That means we want to see Kevin Rudd succeed. He’s done a good job on a number of fronts to date, but only really Kevin Rudd and Anthony Albanese who put him there, can make the proper assessment as to whether he is getting and will be getting and have the access that Australia needs.
Laura Jayes: You can’t make that assessment?
Simon Birmingham: No, I’m not there to see what access he’s received and influence-
Laura Jayes: What do you need to see?
Simon Birmingham: Well, I don’t know who’s answering his calls. I don’t know who he’s meeting with. I’m not going to prejudge that, because it’s in Australia’s interest that our ambassador is given every support to do a good job and to get the best outcomes for our country. But the national interest is bigger than any one person. And if he’s not getting that access, if he’s not going to be able to have the influence, then Anthony Albanese should put the national interest first.
Laura Jayes: We will see Simon Birmingham. Great to see you.
Simon Birmingham: Thanks, LJ my pleasure.
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