Albanese focus on Alfred aftermath before US tariffs threat

Anthony Albanese has all but ruled out using his extended election time frame to visit Washington and push for an exemption on tariffs.

Anthony Albanese has all but ruled out using his extended election time frame to visit Washington and push US President Donald Trump for an Australian exemption on tariffs.

The Prime Minister on Sunday said his sole focus in the weeks before the March 25 budget would be the aftermath of Cyclone Alfred, despite US tariffs on steel and aluminium exports in Australia coming into effect on Wednesday.

“We’re concerned with what’s happened here over the last 24 hours. That’s my focus at the ­moment,” he said in Canberra.

“My focus is on the lives of Australians, the risk that Alfred represents to people in southeast Queensland and in northern NSW – not on votes.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during a visit to the Logan disaster management centre on Sunday. Picture: NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Trade Minister Don Farrell has also not progressed plans for an immediate trip to the US to meet Mr Trump’s Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick.

Australian ambassador Kevin Rudd met Mr Lutnick at the weekend to discuss the tariffs, as influential Trump advisers, including former trade representative Peter Navarro, push the President to not allow any carve-outs for Australia.

The Australian reported on Friday that Senator Farrell’s ­attempts to plan a trip to Washington had been delayed by expectations that Mr Albanese was going to call an election for April 12. Opposition infrastructure spokeswoman Bridget McKenzie on Sunday suggested that West Australian Premier Roger Cook’s labelling of US Vice-President JD Vance as a “knob” for his views on Ukraine could influence Mr Trump’s attitude towards tariff carve-outs.

Ambassador Kevin Rudd. Picture: Supplied

US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP

“This is our most important ally,” she told Sky News. “The ­Coalition was able to secure an exemption when we were in government, when this last came up … but it was all based on relationships. You’ve got an ambassador that’s trash-talked President Trump … You’ve got a Prime Minister who said he’s scared, (a) Foreign Affairs Minister whose language was also pretty loose in the past about current President Trump, and then you’ve had the Premier’s comments.”

Despite the tariffs deadline looming over the government, Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt said Labor considered Mr Trump a reliable partner for Australia.

“There’s strong bipartisan support in the US for the alliance with Australia, for the AUKUS project as well. So we do consider them a reliable ally,” Senator Watt told the ABC. “Some of the things that we’ve seen from the new administration aren’t significantly different to the approach they took the last time they were elected. The alliance remains strong and that’s certainly the way we would expect.”