Interview with Kieran Gilbert, Sky News

Kieran Gilbert: Now to the government's efforts to try and secure a carve-out from the latest Trump tariffs. Earlier I spoke to the Trade Minister, Don Farrell, and I began by asking the Minister when he plans on travelling to the United States to meet Howard Lutnick, who is set to be confirmed as the new Commerce Secretary.

Minister for Trade: Well, of course, the American system is very slow - there's something like 400 applicants that have to be processed by the American Senate and under the Logan Act, essentially, their Cabinet Ministers can't talk to overseas Ministers until such time as they are approved.

Gilbert: You can't even text or – no messages like that?

Minister for Trade: Well, that's my understanding. The American system is very strict, and my counterpart is complying with all of his legal obligations, and we'll continue in any way we can to press for, you know, for the non-imposition –

Gilbert: Of the tariffs.

Minister for Trade: Of these tariffs.

Gilbert: Well, he's through the committee process. He's got to get confirmed by the Senate now, so it could be any day. Will you be straight on a plane then?

Minister for Trade: Look, we'll keep our eye on what's happening here in the United States. We're not getting ahead of ourselves. As you know, this week the Prime Minister spoke with the President and that was a very warm discussion. And, of course, Prime Minister Albanese put the case that we should not be subject to tariffs, whether it's in beef or lamb or aluminium or steel. So, we will continue to press the case.

Gilbert: But you put a high premium on one-on-one relationships.

Minister for Trade: Yeah.

Gilbert: I know you do with the Chinese Minister, ministers across the world who you've dealt with. It's important for you, isn't it? Because you could be the linchpin in this to get that face-to-face time with the Commerce Secretary because we – surely, we need to counter the noises of the Peter Navarros of the world who are in the President's ear with some other opinions.

Minister for Trade: We will do our best to present in the best possible way our case for ensuring that we are not subject to these tariffs. It makes no sense for America to apply tariffs on Australia. And of course, that was the argument that the President referred to when he said that he would, he would consider our request not to be subject to these tariffs. So, my job is to present in the best possible way the case. But can I be clear about this - discussions are taking place between the Prime Minister and the President. We saw the conversation the other day. It's just as important as whatever relationship I might have with my Commerce counterpart that, that relationship between the American President and the Australian Prime Minister continues and hopefully gets the result that we want.

Gilbert: It's looking promising at this stage. From my understanding, without getting into the weeds of it all, but someone who was close to the original deal that was done said to me this week that the irony of all of this, the US, Navarro and so on, claiming we've exceeded what was a promised quota of aluminium exports, was that it was from an American company, Alcoa, that was the company that went over the top of the limit. Is that your understanding?

Minister for Trade: Look, a lot of things, a lot of water has gone under the bridge since that first discussion took place. And I think you can be selective about which period of time that you are referring to. What I can say in the last 12 months, and that's obviously a significant period, Australian exports of both steel and aluminium have decreased and are below that cap that people talk about. Why is that? Well, one of the reasons is that the Australian government of course is keen to diversify our trading relationship. We've been doing that as a response to the issues that arose in respect of China, and our exports to the United States are falling because we are finding other markets at higher prices to sell our aluminium and our steel. They're high-quality products, they are valued around the world, and we'll continue to look for new markets for our products.

Gilbert: And the President himself pointed out that we've, they've got a surplus in trade with us. I want to ask you about the electoral reforms. The crossbench are in a huff over this. They're not happy. And you even had your news conference hijacked today by Zali Steggall. What did you make of that?

Minister for Trade: Look, Zali will do what Zali will do. I have tried to have a calm approach to this legislation. For three years now we've been going through the process of looking at how do we make the Australian electoral system more transparent and more available to ordinary Australians. It shouldn't be the case that you have to have the backing of a millionaire or a billionaire to get elected to the Australian Parliament. Ordinary Australians have got to have an ability to get elected and this electoral reform does exactly that. Now, ok, Zali says the rivers of gold that flow into her campaign should be unrestricted. I don't think that's what the Australian people want out of their electoral system. They want greater transparency, and this delivers that, Kieran. For the first time at the election after next, when you walk into the ballot box, you will know exactly how much money has been paid to the candidate you're contemplating voting for and who's providing that money. This is a major breakthrough in terms of transparency. Donors will have to disclose at a much lower level, so anything above $5,000. But the important thing is that we are capping the amount of money that you can spend on a Lower House seat.

Gilbert: That's $800,000.

Minister for Trade: $800,000.

Gilbert: What do you say to the crossbench who argue – in a nutshell, they say they get capped at 800,000, but then a Labor candidate can spend 800,000 and then the Labor Party machine can go into that seat and spend another 2 million on Labor ads. Because there's no cap on that.

Minister for Trade: Well, there is a cap on that.

Gilbert: On the party spend.

Minister for Trade: On the party spend, there's a cap. A total cap. And of course, that –

Gilbert: In the seats, though?

Minister for Trade: Well, across the board. You can't, you can't spend – a party can't spend more than $90 million in an election –

Gilbert: But you could swamp – their argument is you could swamp an Independent in their seat.

Minister for Trade: Look, look –

Gilbert: They're worrying you're cutting them off at the knees, basically.

Minister for Trade: Look, look, can I say a couple of things? If an independent can't get their message out with an $800,000 spend, then maybe they shouldn't be in the game. This puts downward pressure on both the Independent's ability to spend money, but also their opponent's ability to spend money and the expenditure of the major political parties as a result of this legislation will be 30 per cent less than it was at the last election.

Gilbert: And Zali Steggall? That interaction that you said she'll do what she does, is there a bit of sort of theatrics and all of that, do you think? What was that about?

Minister for Trade: Well, you know, I get on well with all these people. After last night's vote, Mr. Pocock, who was the advocate for this point of view, came round to my office and we had a drink. So, look, there's plenty of theatrics going on. My job is to improve the transparency of the Australian electoral system and make it fairer. And that's what this legislation that we passed last night exactly did.

Gilbert: I know you've got to go. Just a quick one. Your hometown of Adelaide, the Malinauskas effect. Is it going to get help Labor win, possibly the seat of Sturt and hold on to the seat of Boothby at the upcoming Federal Election? You know South Australian politics better than anyone. What's your sense?

Minister for Trade: Well, the first thing I'd say is Premier Malinauskas is doing a terrific job in South Australia and I think, you know, people would say he's leading the way in terms of the state governments. Winning Sturt is tough. The last time the Labor Party won Sturt was 1969, and we lost it in the 1972 Whitlam election, and we haven't held it since that time. So, it's a tough seat to win. And of course, there's four candidates. There's a Teal candidate, a Labor candidate, a Green candidate and the current incumbent, Mr. Stevens. It'll be a tough race. I think, yes, the Premier's support of our candidate there, his support will be important to ensure that we have a real crack at that seat.

Gilbert: Don Farrell, appreciate your time.

Minister for Trade: As always, Kieran.