Australia determines ‘interests’ against Trump threats
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has backed in Australia’s defence spending amid pressure from the Trump administration for a substantial hike.
Defence spending is about 2 per cent, and is set to rise to just above 2.3 per cent by the end of the decade with increased expenditure.
Funding for defence is a key issue for the Trump administration, which is pushing its allies to pay for their share.
Trump’s pick for defence policy under-secretary Elbridge Colby has called for Australia to increase defence spending to 3 per cent of gross domestic product, in line with the level advocated by NATO.
Albanese said Australia determined its national interests.
“My government is allocating significant additional resources for defence that is being rolled out, including missiles, including a range of assets that improve both our capability, but also importantly, our delivery,” he said in Canberra on Thursday.
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“My government is delivering increased defence assets and increased defence capability, and that’s what we’re rolling out.”
Asked about the US decision to withhold intelligence from Ukraine, Albanese said the nation determined its own foreign policy.
“It is in Australia’s national interest to support the brave struggle of the people of Ukraine, led so admirably by President [Volodymyr] Zelensky,” he said.
“Our position on Russia has not changed. The way that this war should stop tomorrow is for Russia to withdraw and to back off from its illegal and immoral invasion.”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government had yet to be advised about reciprocal tariffs to be imposed by Washington.
Trump has threatened to impose them on nations that tax US products or impose “unfair, discriminatory or extraterritorial taxes” on American businesses and consumers.
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They include value-added taxes, fuelling speculation Australia’s Goods and Services Tax could put it in the firing line. But Chalmers said the federal government had received no advice about any extra tariffs.
“We’ve been engaging every level, the Prime Minister to the President, a number of senior ministers have been engaging with our counterparts in the US, making the case for Australia, for Australian industry and Australian workers,” he told ABC radio on Thursday.
“But we take no outcome for granted… I suspect the decision on Australian exemptions has not been made and so we’ll continue to make our case.”
Australia is expecting to face a 25 per cent tariff on steel and aluminium exports to the US as officials work to secure an exemption, which Trump said weeks ago he would consider.
Albanese said the duties were not in the interests of the US or Australia.
Trump has cited trade deficits as a reason for tariffs. But Chalmers said the US had a trade surplus with Australia and imports into Australia weren’t taxed.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said he pointed to Australia making “a historic increase in our defence spending” when he spoke with his US counterpart Pete Hegseth.
The opposition has called for more to be spent on defence, with finance spokeswoman Jane Hume flagging a potential rise to 3 per cent.
“We expect we will meet our international obligations, and if taking defence spending up to a much higher proportion of GDP is the expectation… that’s where we need to go,” she told Melbourne radio station 3AW on Wednesday.
