Australia news LIVE: Trump rules out Australian exemption from tariffs; High Court rules in favour of native titleholders in compensation case​on March 12, 2025 at 2:55 am

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says there is a “serious problem with insurance in this country”.

After ex-tropical cyclone Alfred hit Queensland and northern NSW, Dutton said Australians are paying higher premiums.

“Under the prime minister’s watch, insurance premiums have gone up by over 20 per cent, in some cases much higher than that. And in many other cases Australians can’t get insurance at all,” Dutton said.

“If there is a failure of the market here … certainly something has failed consumers at the moment because under the government, people are paying 20 or 30 per cent [or] in some cases much higher increases in premiums. In many cases, they can’t get insurance.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says if there is a change in government he will do a deal with the Trump administration.

“I do believe that if there is a change of government we will do a deal with the Trump administration, no question about that,” he said.

“I believe we can get a deal done with the Trump administration, because we will be a strong government that stands up for our national interests.

“This prime minister is out of his depth, he has no idea what he’s doing when it comes to energy, when it comes to the economy, when it comes to national security, when it comes to keeping Australians safe and when it comes to this relationship, which is now critically broken between the US and Australia because of the prime minister’s incompetence.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has blamed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Australian ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd for Donald Trump’s tariff decision.

Speaking from Brisbane, Dutton described the tariffs on steel and aluminum as a “bad day for Australia”, arguing Albanese had “completely failed”.

“It’s obvious Anthony Albanese and Kevin Rudd has had a shocker. The prime minister can’t secure a phone call or meeting with the President of the United States, and how on earth can [an] outcome be negotiated if the president won’t take his call,” he said.

Albanese has had two calls with Trump since his election win.

“This is a bad day for our country [and] the prime minister has failed in his attempt to stand up for our country,” Dutton continued.

“We don’t believe that an outcome wasn’t possible – we negotiated an outcome with America when the Coalition was in government in 2018.

“This prime minister has failed because the president won’t take the call, or grant a meeting with Anthony Albanese. It shows how incompetent and how hopeless this prime minister is.”

Climate 200 founder Simon Holmes a Court says the major parties conspired to rig the political system and lock out independents.

Labor and the Coalition last month passed a bill that limits the amount that candidates can spend and receive in donations.

Teal MPs, who received millions in donations at the last election, opposed the laws and said the changes favoured parties with big national budgets. Labor disputes this claim.

“Rather than changing their approach, to broaden their appeal to the electorate, they chose instead to rig the rules,” he said.

“They rarely agree on anything, but when self-interest is at stake, they can’t wait to get into bed with each other.

“All at a cost to the public who are abandoning the major parties at the ballot box.”

Good afternoon, and thanks for reading the national news blog.

I’m Cassandra Morgan, taking over from Josefine Ganko. If you’re just joining us, here’s a look at what we’ve been covering today.

• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accused Donald Trump of breaching the spirit of Australia’s close relationship with the United States by slapping a 25 per cent tariff on all US steel and aluminium imports, labelling the move an unjustified act of economic self-harm.
• Albanese confirmed the government would not impose reciprocal tariffs and has said he will not fly to Washington to visit Trump despite criticism of his failure to do so.
• The federal government has lost its appeal in a native title case that could expose it to a raft of multimillion-dollar compensation claims over land it acquired in the Northern Territory throughout the 20th century.
• Labor and the Coalition traded barbs this morning in the fallout of the Dural caravan bomb hoax, with Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke labelling opposition spokesperson James Paterson’s comments “truly bizarre”.
• Paterson has batted away the government’s suggestions the opposition avoided being briefed on the hoax so it could keep pushing its national security argument against the handling of the investigation.
• Teal movement funder Simon Holmes a Court is currently addressing the National Press Club. We’ll keep blogging the latest from his address.

Keep following the national news blog with us into this evening!

Simon Holmes a Court says his Climate 200 funding outfit did not create the community independents movement but rather piggybacked on its success.

Climate 200 spent millions funding the six progressive independents who defeated Liberals in the 2022 election.

But Holmes a Court argued his organisation did not orchestrate the actions of the teals, despite Climate 200 providing funding, polling and research for candidates.

“We didn’t create it,” he said.

“Nor am I speaking for the independents or the movement.

“I am simply someone who understands its power and its potential.”

Holmes a Court said it was arguable “we have never seen something” as special as the wave of community independents in Australian political history.

Unlike Clive Palmer’s ability to elect what he called “Trump-like” candidates, Holmes a Court said independents were successful because they were in touch with the concerns of voters.

Teal movement funder Simon Holmes a Court has claimed credit for key Albanese government achievements and warned against right-wing populism as 30 community independents aim to win more seats at the next election.

Holmes a Court, who founded the Climate 200 crowdfunding vehicle that helped bankroll teal candidates, claimed independents had “forced” Labor to establish the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

He added that progressive crossbenchers had pressured Labor to cut university fee debts and enact pro-women policies.

Speaking at the National Press Club, Holmes a Court said teal MPs had “vastly improved the tone of our politics”.

“They are rebuilding faith in our democracy,” he said.

Decrying “authoritarian populism from Trump’s America”, the energy investor said Coalition leader Peter Dutton represented the biggest threat to climate action in Australia.

“This election is truly a sliding doors moment for our country,” he said.

Australia’s largest aluminium manufacturer, Capral, has been in business for 80 years, producing extruded aluminium for construction and window frames.

Chief executive Tony Dragicevich said imports already supply about 30 per cent of the local aluminium extrusion market, and he expects Trump’s tariffs will increase competition.

“There is no doubt that tariffs will have an impact on the international trade flows, and some of that product will need to find a new home,” Dragicevich said.

Capral employs 1100 people across six manufacturing plants and 22 distribution centres, pulling in $650 million in annual revenue.

He said the company struggles to compete with imports.“It’s tough when we employ 1100 people and half of them are in manufacturing operations, and we’re paying internationally high wages for quality staff here in Australia, and we’re competing against very low labour cost countries.”

The federal government is investigating ways to strengthen anti-dumping measures to aid local industries such as steel and aluminium following global disruption from Trump’s tariffs.

There is an anti-dumping measure in place now until the end of the year for extruded aluminium from China and local businesses like Capral are adamant that this be extended.

“We’ve got to be vigilant because we have seen what’s happened to very long-standing industries. The car industry was one, but another recent one was Oceania Glass, the last surviving float glass manufacturer in Australia, being put into administration last month partly because the anti-dumping measures they had in place were withdrawn,” Dragicevich said.

Tying off the prime minister’s press conference, Albanese made sure to remind reporters that not a single country had been exempted from Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs.

“It is disappointing … Australia has a close relationship with the United States. Friends need to act in a way that reinforces, to our respective populations, the fact that we are friends,” he said.

“This is not a friendly act. But it is imposed on every country, that is important.”

Albanese also backed Australian steel and aluminium manufacturers to find other markets to fill the US void.

“Australia has products that are in demand around the world,” he said.

After the Federal Police revealed a caravan filled with explosives found near Sydney was part of an organised crime “con job”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has refused to say when he was informed that the leading line of inquiry was that it was a hoax.

Albanese, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and NSW Premier Chris Minns have faced questioning over the decision to label the incident an act of terrorism without any such designation from authorities.

The AFP confirmed on Tuesday they knew “almost immediately” that it was likely a fake plot.

When asked if he was informed that the plot could be a hoax before or after he labelled it “a form of terrorism”, Albanese didn’t answer, only saying that he was informed appropriately and had known for “some time”.

“What I did was engage and support the AFP. Not engage in the sort of nonsense that we saw from the Coalition,” he said.

“What I chose to do, in spite of some of the media commentary and in spite of the criticism of the opposition, was to act in our interest, back our security agencies, back the Australian Federal Police and allow them to do their job and that is what responsible leadership looks like, not the commentary that we saw from members of the Coalition.”

Albanese added that although it was a hoax, it did “not mean that it didn’t create fear for the Jewish community”. “It did,” he said.