Election 2025: I don’t need Scott Morrison to take on Trump, says Dutton

Anthony Albanese has denied tying Peter Dutton to US President Donald Trump as Labor tries to get an exemption from the White House tariffs.

President Donald Trump waves to supporters from his limousine as he arrives at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. Picture: AP

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Peter Dutton has brushed off the idea of using Scott Morrison as a conduit for Donald Trump as Anthony Albanese says he couldn’t get a call with the US President because he had “made a decision not to talk to anyone”.

Ahead of a week expected to be dominated by the “Liberation Day” global reciprocal tariffs – due to be announced on Wednesday (AEDT) – the Prime Minister denied linking his rival to the US President, despite having made a series of veiled allusions.

When asked whether it was wise to link Mr Dutton and Mr Trump in the middle of tariff negotiations, Mr Albanese responded: “I’m not”.

“People will draw conclusions themselves when they see mass job cuts,” Mr Albanese said. “He is talking here … about 41,000 public servants … There is no doubt that there will be consequences.”

The direct cost of the US tariffs on Australian aluminium and steel is about $1bn annually, which represents less than 1 per cent of all ­exports.

The Opposition Leader has responded to Mr Albanese’s comments that he was “photocopying” or “borrowing” policies from abroad, in a clear attempt to link the Coalition leader and the US President, by describing such language as needless “sledging”.

As he faces the prospect of taking over the nation’s relationship with the US, Mr Dutton on Sunday brushed aside suggestions of deploying Mr Morrison into ­Australia’s embassy or in any other role that could benefit the Canberra-Washington relationship.

“I’ve got high praise for Scott … but as I’ve pointed out before, we’ve got an ambassador in place and I want that ambassador to be successful,” he said.

“When we were in government, we were able to negotiate the AUKUS arrangement as a ­Coalition government with a Democratic administration, and we did that, respectfully, negotiating hard, and we got the fantastic outcome for our country.”

Despite Mr Morrison having posted a ringing endorsement of the new Liberal leader on LinkedIn last Friday, who he said he “strongly supported”, Mr Dutton did not respond when asked whether he believed he wouldn’t need the former prime minister’s help to seek trade exemptions from the Trump administration.

“I strongly believe that I will be able to drive a competitive deal with Australia in our negotiations with the US,” he said.

“We were able to negotiate with the Trump administration (during the Turnbull government) and make sure that Australia was spared from the tariffs. Now Mr Albanese hasn’t been able to do that because it’s not just in Australia that Mr Albanese is seen as weak, but he’s also seen as weak on the world stage.”

Mr Dutton made the comments at an Austral brickworks factory in the Labor-held western Sydney seat of McMahon, where employees said they were concerned over the flow-on impacts of looming economic and trade decisions by the US on local industry.

Hope that Mr Trump could grant Australia any exemptions in his upcoming round of reciprocal tariffs have been dwindling among senior government figures, who told The Australian earlier this month that the US President appeared “hellbent” on sweeping trade sanctions.

With the first full week of the election campaign set to be dominated by the outcome of the US tariffs decision on Wednesday, Mr Albanese said Australian officials were still seeking to engage with the Trump administration.

“What we’re doing is engaging through officials,” he told ABC on Sunday. “What happens at the leadership level consistently is that (we) have attempted to get an agreement. If we have an agreement, we will have a face-to-face or one-on-one discussion.”