Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton grilled over US tariffs, China in tense election debate

Standing in front of millions of voters, the Prime Minister and his challenger have danced around the elephant in the room as global relations sit on a knife’s edge.

Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have squared off in a tense debate held at the ABC’s Parramatta studio, discussing a wide range of topics from housing affordability to the country’s dilemma with foreign superpowers US and China.

The Prime Minister and his opponent were grilled on the current pressures Australia is being put under following US President Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs.

Mr Dutton actually sided with Mr Albanese this month on the topic of pushing back against Mr Trump, promising that he would always fight for Australia’s interests no matter how daunting the task.

Debate moderator David Speers then pressed the two candidates on whether they “trusted” both Xi Jinping and Mr Trump. Mr Dutton admitted that while he found Donald Trump and JD Vance’s confrontation with Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky “appalling”, he trusted the US as a country and simply hadn’t had the opportunity to get a gauge on Mr Trump one-on-one.

“I said in relation to President Trump I thought the scenes we saw coming out of the White House, the treatment of President Zelenskyy, was a disgrace and appalling. I stand by those comments,” he said.

“We trust the US, and I don’t know the President. I’ve not met him. My point is who I trust is the Australian people. My job is to stand up for our country’s interests which is what I did when we negotiated the AUKUS deal with President Biden.”

Mr Albanese said he had “no reason not to” trust Mr Trump after their most recent chat.

I’ve had a couple of discussions with him. And the last discussion we agreed on a series of words that he would give consideration. ‘Great consideration’ were the words he used.

“In the end, he made a decision as part of the US administration to put these tariffs on every country. We got the lowest amount. But we made it very clear that was an act of self-harm by the US. The US enjoys a trade surplus with Australia. All this will do is put up costs for American consumers.”

Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have squared off in a heated debate held at the ABC’s Parramatta studio, discussing a wide range of topics from housing affordability to the country’s US dilemma.

The candidates were then pressed on what they had planned to offer Mr Trump to scale back the tariffs. Mr Albanese dodged the question, claiming it was too sensitive of an issue to discuss on national television, but assured viewers he “won’t budge” on key issues including pharmaceuticals, the media bargaining code and biosecurity.

“We’ll engage diplomatically, not through TV interview, but we have put forward a proposition to the US. The US have put forward publicly their complaints about Australia,” he said.

“We won’t budge on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. We won’t budge on biosecurity issues. We won’t budge on the media bargaining code. We will stand up for Australia’s national interests because that is important.”

Mr Dutton criticised Mr Albanese for failing to believe Mr Trump would be elected, claiming the Coalition, if elected, would “leverage relationships” within the White House to achieve a beneficial deal for Australia.

Mr Albanese said he had ‘no reason not to’ trust both Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. (Photo by Mandel NGAN and Pedro Pardo / AFP)

Mr Dutton also threw a jab at Kevin Rudd, suggesting the ambassador had done the country harm by souring his relationship with the US President.

“Sadly for our country, ambassador Rudd can’t get into the West Wing and can’t get a meeting with the President. (The Coalition) will look with whom we have relationship and contacts and those external to the administration.

“(Albanese) didn’t think Donald Trump was going to get elected and put nothing into the relationship. Unfortunately, Australia, our beef producers and others are now facing this 10 per cent tariff.

Mr Dutton suggested it was time for some good old fashioned shoulder rubbing and that his government would be far better placed to mend the relationship with the White House.

Mr Dutton suggested it was time for some good old fashioned shoulder rubbing and that his government would be far better placed to mend the relationship with the White House.

“I think we have the ability, as we demonstrated before, to talk to the administration and again the mistruth that was spoken before by the Prime Minister about John Howard, the points I make which is accepted by most sensible people, is that as John Howard agrees with, we should be doing everything we can to enhance the relationship, to make our two countries stronger together. We’ve been with the US for the last 100 years,” he said.

The showdown then turned to China, where geopolitical tensions have been simmering between the West and Beijing over a multitude of issues including US tariffs and Taiwan.

Despite the clear differences between the interests of Australia and China, Albanese said he trusted President Xi Jinping.

“I have no reason not to,” he said.

“In terms of the discussions we have had one-on one, they have been important. China’s our major trading partner. One in four Australian jobs depends upon trade. It’s in Australia’s national interest to have a good economic relationship with China. We have different political systems.

“That means different values and we have very different values with China. What I’ve said is we’ll co-operate where we can and disagree where we must but we’ll engage in our national interests.”

Australia will head to the polls on May 3.

Originally published as Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton grilled over US tariffs, China in tense election debate