US accuses Australia of breaking ‘verbal commitment’ on aluminium exports – as it happened​on February 11, 2025 at 7:59 am

And with that, we are going to put the blog to bed. Before we go, let’s recap the big ones:

• The government should prioritise helping Australians under 34 access bulk-billed GP appointments, make longer consults and mental health appointments cheaper, the peak body for general practitioners has said.

• The treasurer has announced a package to keep regional bank services open. Jim Chalmers said Australia Post, CBA, NAB and Westpac have all reached new in-principle Bank@Post agreements to support banking services through regional Australia Post outlets.

• The PM said he had “a great conversation” with Donald Trump and that the US president was considering an exemption from tariffs. Later, the president signed the executive order for tariffs on steel and aluminium.

• In question time, Dutton asked the PM if he was planning any changes to negative gearing, which Albo sidestepped, instead attacking the Coalition for its long lunch policy. And there was a fight about who was responsible for Australia’s lack of bulk billing clinics.

• Voters in Werribee in will have to wait a little longer as the vote is still close and neither Labor’s candidate, John Lister, to the Liberal party’s Steve Murphy will make a call.

• Minister for Industry and science, Ed Husic, questioned the broadcaster’s controversial defence that its case against Antoinette Lattouf, when it had argued her case should fail because she had not proved that there was a Lebanese, Middle Eastern or Arab race.

• Residents in the north-west of Tasmania, in Sandy Cape and surrounds, were told to take shelter on Tuesday afternoon, while those at Corinna were urged to leave immediately as fires rage.

• In good news for Sydney commuters the minister for transport, John Graham, has just announced the industrial action planned for Wednesday has been paused. We will be back tomorrow to do it all again.

Thank you for spending part of your day with us.

The US has accused Australia of breaking a “verbal commitment” to limit aluminium exports in the formal order imposing a 25% tariff on the commodity.

As we reported earlier, Donald Trump said he would give “great consideration” to exempting Australia from the tariffs after a phone call on Tuesday morning with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese.

The official proclamation to impose the tariff – which was published after the phone call – appears to explain why Australia was not exempted from the outset.

The former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull negotiated a carve out from steel and aluminium tariffs during Trump’s first term.

The proclamation read:

The volume of U.S. imports of primary aluminum from Australia has also surged and in 2024 was approximately 103% higher than the average volume for 2015 through 2017. Australia has disregarded its verbal commitment to voluntarily restrain its aluminum exports to a reasonable level.

The tariffs – which will also apply to steel – will start on 12 March unless Albanese can secure an exemption before then.

Separate ETU industrial action to proceed on Wednesday

A separate industrial action by the Electrical Trades Union will proceed on Wednesday in Sydney.

The ETU action will still take place between 8am and 4pm on Wednesday, when some Sydney Trains employees taking part in rolling hourly “work stoppages”.

Alcohol deliveries under scrutiny after woman’s death from poisoning

Alcohol delivery services could be restricted after a woman died from alcohol poisoning, with a coroner finding she had more than 300 alcohol products delivered in the six months leading up to her death, AAP has reported.

Kathleen Arnold, 30, was found dead by her mother in their Heidelberg home on 16 September 2023, after consuming at least one bottle of wine and half a bottle of vodka.

At the time, Arnold had been sober for about four days, but a postmortem found she had a blood alcohol level of at least 0.54, coroner Ingrid Giles said in her report.

Arnold’s mother, Jennifer Martin, told the coroner her daughter had engaged with multiple alcohol and drug services, and was able to reduce her drinking for periods. But easy access to alcohol through delivery platforms meant she could not maintain her sobriety.

Giles on Tuesday recommended a curfew for alcohol deliveries between 10pm and 10am, a two-hour delay between orders, and for the state government to develop a new action plan to address alcohol-related harms.

In good news for Sydney commuters the minister for transport, John Graham, has just announced the industrial action planned for Wednesday has been paused.

In a statement he said:

The NSW government and the RTBU have agreed that a planned go-slow which would have commenced Wednesday 12 February be postponed for 48 hours.

This agreement was reached as part of ongoing discussions.

Passengers of Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink should continue to check travel apps.

Three weeks after combined rail unions gave an undertaking not to conduct any further serious work stoppages that would threaten to grind Sydney to a halt in a way that was seen earlier in January, several unions had various activities planned for Wednesday.

Members of the Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU), who operate trains, were going to take part in protected industrial action that includes operating trains at reduced speeds for a two week period from Wednesday.

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Share market closes unchanged

The local share market has finished basically unchanged, with a sharp loss by CSL on a disappointing earnings report balanced by strong gains by goldminers as the yellow metal hit another record high, AAP reports.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index finished on Tuesday up 1.2 points at 8,484.0, while the broader All Ordinaries climbed four points, or 0.05%, to 8,751.6.

Capital.com analyst Kyle Rodda said that trade war angst and soft earnings saw the ASX200 give up an early gain to close about flat.

While the economic impact of the US president, Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminium imports into the US is expected to be modest domestically, the market was reacting to fears of further tariffs to come and the possibility that the global economy was spiralling towards and all out trade war, Rodda said.

We have a bit more information on the fires raging in north-west Tasmania, with the premier urging people to heed warnings. From AAP:

Residents and visitors to Sandy Cape and surrounds were told to take shelter on Tuesday afternoon, while those at Corinna were urged to leave immediately.

TasAlert warnings said the blazes were expected to put lives in danger and may destroy homes:

Fire conditions are expected to be uncontrollable, unpredictable and fast moving.

There is expected to be thick smoke, and showers of embers which may cause fires all around you.

The Tasmanian premier, Jeremy Rockliff, said the next few days were critical in the fire fight:

If you are asked to leave, then leave, it is critical that we all follow those instructions very, very clearly.

The minister for industry and science Ed Husic was just speaking on Afternoon Briefing. As the conversation was winding up, he said he had one more thing to add that may get him “into grief”.

He wanted to talk about Antoinette Lattouf v ABC, and the broadcaster’s controversial defence that her case should fail because she had not proved that there was a Lebanese, Middle Eastern or Arab race.

Today, the ABC withdrew the defence.

He said:

Why raise it in the first place?

I just speak as someone, I’m the kid of migrants, I think there were a lot of us that were surprised that they would enter [it].

I felt for people of a Middle Eastern, Lebanese or Arab background that had to hear that.

Emergency fire warnings are in place for Tasmania’s north-west.

People in Corinna and surrounds are being told to leave immediately and those in Sandy Cape are being told to take shelter.

Everybody’s Home spokesperson Maiy Azize said the findings paint a devastating picture of a sector in crisis, with services struggling to meet overwhelming demand.

Azize:

The services at the coalface of Australia’s housing crisis are at breaking point. They can barely keep up with the rising number of people facing housing stress and homelessness.

Frontline organisations are telling us this has been the worst summer for increased workload, as sky-high rents and the cost of living continue to smash Australians.

With more and more people in need of help, frontline services are facing more complex casework, longer waitlists, and staff burnout and turnover.

Record numbers of people are being turned away from the help they need because there are simply not enough resources to meet the demand.

Agencies supporting homeless people experienced surge in demand

Frontline organisations supporting people affected by Australia’s housing crisis have faced their worst summer on record, experiencing an unprecedented surge in demand, according to Everybody’s Home.

The national housing campaign’s ‘Under Pressure’ sector survey interviewed 61 frontline organisations across the country. It found that nearly nine in 10 (87%) had a major increase in workload during December and January compared to previous years, due to the worsening housing crisis.

The vast majority (98%) of organisations—including those in housing, homelessness, domestic violence, and other social and community services— reported increased workloads over the past year and expect demand for their services to keep rising in 2025.

As a result of soaring demand for their help, three in four (76%) organisations reported more complex casework, seven in ten (72%) cited increased waitlists, while two in three (67%) said they’ve been unable to provide clients with long-term housing solutions.

Hi everyone – this is Cait Kelly. I will be with you for the rest of the day, so let’s get into it!

Thanks all for joining me on the blog today!

I’ll leave you in the very capable hands of Cait Kelly for the rest of the afternoon, and see you bright and early in the morning.