Latest / The Front / Why Albo buckled to Trump’s biggest beef

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Why Albo buckled to Trump’s biggest beef · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: It's Friday, July twenty five, twenty twenty five. Australian women
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: who were strip searched at Doha Airport have won the
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  Speaker 1: right to sue Quitar Airways, with the full Federal Court
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: overruling a judge who dismissed their case. A pregnant twelve
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: year old girl has been given permission by a Supreme
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  Speaker 1: Court judge to have an abortion she conceived after consensual
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  Speaker 1: sex with her thirteen year old boyfriend, but at Queensland
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  Speaker 1: Hospital took the case to court, concerned she didn't have
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  Speaker 1: capacity to consent to a termination. Those stories alive now
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: at the Australian dot com. Do a U a coincidence,
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  Speaker 1: not a capitulation. That's the Albanese government's explanation for suddenly
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  Speaker 1: dropping a twenty year ban on American beef. They say
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  Speaker 1: it's nothing to do with the fact that Donald Trump
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  Speaker 1: was demanding access for American farmers and now that Trump
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  Speaker 1: administration is claiming victory today, will it help our cause?
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  Speaker 1: When there's a florry of government staff visiting journalists in
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  Speaker 1: the press gallery in Canberra something's going on. When that
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  Speaker 1: florry is happening before dawn, you know it's big this time.
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  Speaker 1: What the staffers and politicians were doing on level two
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  Speaker 1: of the Senate Wing was announcing big news on beef imports.
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  Speaker 1: After a twenty year ban, Australia was about to drop
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  Speaker 1: bio security restrictions on American slaughtered beef being imported to
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  Speaker 1: Australia for sale because they said a rigorous biosecurity study
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  Speaker 1: says actually it's safe.
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  Speaker 2: On paper, this looks like it's pretty big capetulation to
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  Speaker 2: one of Donald Trump's key demands when it comes to
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  Speaker 2: Australian treat that's.
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  Speaker 1: Richard Ferguson, our Camber Bureau Chief.
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  Speaker 2: So it's clear that the Albanese government was very ready
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  Speaker 2: to put out its lines and to make it seem
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  Speaker 2: as much as possible that this has nothing to do
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  Speaker 2: with Donald Trump. So we had the Agriculture Minister, Julie
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  Speaker 2: Collins put out a very early morning statement. We even
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  Speaker 2: had government staffers going through the offices as early as
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  Speaker 2: possible to make sure the lines were correct, and then
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  Speaker 2: we had the minister herself stand up and the Trade
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  Speaker 2: Minister Don Farrell stand up in the press gallery to
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  Speaker 2: say this was a long term, ten year process, this
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  Speaker 2: was all about science. We're just announcing it now. Oh,
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  Speaker 2: it happens to be Donald Trump's biggest gripe about Australia
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  Speaker 2: when it comes to trade. All well, never mind that.
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  Speaker 1: He is Trump Beck in April, they.
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  Speaker 3: Won't take any of our beef. They don't want it
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  Speaker 3: because they don't want it to affect their farmers. And
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  Speaker 3: you know what, I don't blame them, but we're doing
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  Speaker 3: the same thing right now starting about midnight tonight, I
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  Speaker 3: would say.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, look, the government is very very stringent from
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  Speaker 2: the top down that this has nothing to do with
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  Speaker 2: negotiations on trade. However, I think it's fair to say
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  Speaker 2: that it's one of the great coincidences of Australian politics
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  Speaker 2: in recent years that a study saying we should let
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  Speaker 2: American import more beef happens to be released now. But
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  Speaker 2: you know, I think the joke at the moment is
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  Speaker 2: is there a secret, ten year, rigorous process on the
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  Speaker 2: PBS or steel or aluminium that we're about to see drop.
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  Speaker 1: Indeed, Trump's own Agriculture Secretary, Brooke L. Rowlands immediately put
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  Speaker 1: out a triumphal statement We've used an AI voice to
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  Speaker 1: read it for you.
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  Speaker 4: Make agriculture great again. Trade wins. President Trump secures greater
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  Speaker 4: agriculture market access to Australia for American beef. American farmers
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  Speaker 4: in Rand produce the safest, healthiest beef in the world.
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  Speaker 4: It's absurd that non scientific trade barriers prevented our beef
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  Speaker 4: from being sold to consumers in Australia for the last
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  Speaker 4: twenty years. Gone are the days of putting American farmers
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  Speaker 4: on the sidelines. This is yet another example of the
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  Speaker 4: kind of market access the President negotiates to bring America
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  Speaker 4: into a new golden age of prosperity.
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  Speaker 1: So why did we have a ban on American beef anyway?
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  Speaker 1: Mad cow disease. In nineteen eighty six, a British farmer
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  Speaker 1: noticed a couple of his cows were behaving strangely, dazed
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  Speaker 1: and uncoordinated. An autopsy confirmed they'd been infected with bovine
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  Speaker 1: spongeiform encephilopathy or BSE. It's an infectious protein that targets
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  Speaker 1: the brain, making it look spongy under a microscope, hence
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  Speaker 1: the name.
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  Speaker 5: Some scientists believe that it breaks some of the laws
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  Speaker 5: of nature as we know them, and thus maybe a
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  Speaker 5: novel form of life.
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  Speaker 1: Symptoms of BSE, also known as mad cow disease, can
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  Speaker 1: appear several years after infection, but once they do, death
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  Speaker 1: quickly follows. Those initial cases sparked a decade long disaster
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  Speaker 1: with global ramifications.
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  Speaker 2: An opinion poll yesterday found that a quarter of households
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  Speaker 2: had dropped beef from the family menu. Over half a
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  Speaker 2: million cows aged over thirty months have been cold since May.
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  Speaker 4: It is a devastating indictment of British government, probably one
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  Speaker 4: of the worst examples of British misgovernment since the war.
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  Speaker 1: It spread through thousands of herds because livestock eight feed
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  Speaker 1: made from the ground up remains of infected cattle. Humans
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  Speaker 1: can also contract mad cow by ingesting infected meat. It
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  Speaker 1: presents as kreutzfeld Yakub disease, a horrendous rapid onset of
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  Speaker 1: dementia and then death, untreatable, unincurable. It has cost the
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  Speaker 1: Health Service over a billion pounds. The practice of using
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  Speaker 1: cattle parts to feed livestock is now banned. For more
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  Speaker 1: than two decades, Australia banned the import of fresh and
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  Speaker 1: frozen beef from the US unless the life cycle of
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  Speaker 1: the beasts could be traced all the way from birth
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  Speaker 1: to slaughter house. But America has a huge and complex
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  Speaker 1: supply chain, with animals coming in from Mexico and Canada
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  Speaker 1: before being killed in the US and exported. The Americans
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  Speaker 1: said Australia's demands for traceability were unreasonable. Australia's held the
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  Speaker 1: line through several changes of government, but now Minister Julie
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  Speaker 1: Collins says the US has strengthened control measures and tracing systems.
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  Speaker 2: No what as I think difficult to process and all
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  Speaker 2: of that's with the government seeing that this as all
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  Speaker 2: completely coincidental, has nothing to do with tariffs. In June,
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  Speaker 2: when this was put to the Prime Minister that these
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  Speaker 2: kind of changes would happen, he said, no, we will
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  Speaker 2: do nothing to compromise on biosecurity.
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  Speaker 5: We have made it very clear to the United States
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  Speaker 5: that we will not compromise on bio security. We will
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  Speaker 5: not waken the measures that protect their farmers and producers
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  Speaker 5: from the races of disas or contamination.
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  Speaker 2: The government's line is we have done nothing to compromise
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  Speaker 2: on biosecurity. We've just removed the biosecurity barriers and made
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  Speaker 2: all these changes best on a ten year study. So
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  Speaker 2: it gets to the heart of the trickery of language
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  Speaker 2: that is being used here and is constantly being used
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  Speaker 2: by the government when it comes to Donald Trump. They
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  Speaker 2: do not like to talk about Donald Trump. They try
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  Speaker 2: everything they can to avoid talking about Donald Trump unless
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  Speaker 2: they can find a way to attack the Liberal Party
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  Speaker 2: by connecting them to Donald Trump.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the Prime.
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  Speaker 2: Minister, for example, has know a kind of stated response
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  Speaker 2: whenever he's asked anything about Donald Trump, which is, I'm
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  Speaker 2: not going to comment on everything the US President says.
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  Speaker 2: If you would have believed that any prime minister would
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  Speaker 2: have said that about Barack Obama, George Bush, Ronald Reagan,
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  Speaker 2: LBJJFK all the way to Eisenhower and Roosevelt. You know,
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  Speaker 2: I'm not going to comment on what the US President says.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it just shows the kind of world we're
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  Speaker 2: living and both in terms of Albanesia and Trump, in
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  Speaker 2: a way.
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  Speaker 1: Australia desperately needs a deal on trade. Ever since Donald
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  Speaker 1: Trump ripped up our free trade agreement and imposed a
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  Speaker 1: blanket ten percent tariff which could soon rise to twenty
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  Speaker 1: percent on everything we send to the US, plus a
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  Speaker 1: fifty percent tariff on Australian steel and aluminium. America's pharmaceutical
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  Speaker 1: industry wants to sell more drugs here, which would probably
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  Speaker 1: mean higher prices for Australian patients on our pharmaceutic called
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  Speaker 1: Benefit Scheme or PBS. The White House is threatening a
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  Speaker 1: two hundred percent tariff on drugs manufactured in places like
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  Speaker 1: Australia unless we relax the PBS rules. And Anthony Alberanezi
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  Speaker 1: says he wants a meeting with Donald Trump, but Trump
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  Speaker 1: keeps putting it off. Let's assume what seems will be
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  Speaker 1: as Richard, which is that the Australian government has capitulated
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  Speaker 1: to what the Americans want on beef as part of
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  Speaker 1: a bigger improvement in their relationship or ensuring Australia gets
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  Speaker 1: a good deal. Why not just be honest about that.
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  Speaker 2: The obvious answer would be Claire, is that there has
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  Speaker 2: been a ten year study and the coincidence is true.
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  Speaker 2: Let's not discount this because we are cynical at heart.
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  Speaker 2: But it's also possible that the government once again does
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  Speaker 2: not want to look as if it's in a position
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  Speaker 2: of weakness. You know, the government has really been putting
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  Speaker 2: out the message over the past couple of weeks that
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  Speaker 2: no compromise is going to get us as good as
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  Speaker 2: a trading relationship as we had nearly twenty years ago
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  Speaker 2: between John Howard and Dori Stubby Bush. That is there belief.
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  Speaker 2: That's why they don't want to compromise on the PBS.
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  Speaker 2: The Albanezi government is following the presidents of the Morrison
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  Speaker 2: government during Trump's first term, in which it actually took
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  Speaker 2: them months to score a deal, but they got a
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  Speaker 2: much better deal than anybody else.
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  Speaker 4: You know.
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  Speaker 2: For example, Japan has one of the absolutely hop targets
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  Speaker 2: of Trump when it comes to tariffs. I mean, you know, huge,
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  Speaker 2: huge tariffs. They have now done a deal. It's not
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  Speaker 2: a great deal, and the Prime Minister of Japan, who's
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  Speaker 2: already lost a majority in the lower House and just
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  Speaker 2: lost a majority in the Upper House, looks like he'll
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  Speaker 2: resign because he's saying, oh, well, I got a trade
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  Speaker 2: deal with Trump. I don't want to deal with this anymore.
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  Speaker 2: So it is part of the Albaneza government doesn't want
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  Speaker 2: to look weak when it comes to Trump. It doesn't
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  Speaker 2: want to look weak, which you know is pretty smart
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  Speaker 2: strategy in general, because we all know that Trump does
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  Speaker 2: not respond well to weakness. He likes people who are
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  Speaker 2: tough guys just like him.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up, I can't Anthony Albanesi and Kevin Rudd get
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  Speaker 1: FaceTime at the White House. Which how focused do you
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  Speaker 1: think the government is on actually getting a sit down
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  Speaker 1: with the United States, an exemption on some tariffs and
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  Speaker 1: some guarantees about UCUS.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the line from Anthony Alberanizi is that he's doing
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  Speaker 2: everything he can. Kevin Rudd is the US ambassador in Washington,
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  Speaker 2: is doing everything he can. The Foreign Minister, Penny Wong's
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  Speaker 2: doing everything she can do'n Farrell, the Trade Minister's doing
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  Speaker 2: everything he can. But when you look at the facts,
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  Speaker 2: we know that Kevin Rudd struggles to get much time
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  Speaker 2: with the West wing of the White House. We know
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  Speaker 2: that Anthony Albanesi is definitely not on top of Trump's
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  Speaker 2: list for leaders that he needs to call. Considering he's
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  Speaker 2: met with, you know, the Prime Minister of Ireland and
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  Speaker 2: all our nations at the White House, and he's talked
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  Speaker 2: to our G twenty partners, you know, from Starmer to
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  Speaker 2: Maloney to Macron dozens of dozens of times. And considering
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  Speaker 2: also the Prime Minister gets very agitated whenever he's asked,
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  Speaker 2: when are you going to meet with Donald Trump. You've
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  Speaker 2: got to remember at a recent international summit that JD
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  Speaker 2: Vance was at, the Vice President Albinizi was asked, will
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  Speaker 2: you meet with J.
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  Speaker 1: D Vance?
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  Speaker 2: And he said, no, I meet leader to leader. And
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  Speaker 2: then he goes to China and he meets with the
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  Speaker 2: Shanghai Party boss, he meets with the Premier, he meets
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  Speaker 2: with the chairman of the Chinese National People's Congress. So
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: he's clearly meeting other people who aren't just the leader.
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  Speaker 2: So he has said he wants a good relationship with
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Donald Trump. Donald Trump has always been very positive about
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  Speaker 2: Anthony Albanezi whenever he's been askedying he's a good guy.
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  Speaker 2: So there's clearly some warmth in the phone conversations that
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  Speaker 2: I've had there. But it must be noted that many
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  Speaker 2: leaders have gone into the Oval Office and the president
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: has been Donald Trump and done the Donald Trump performance.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, look at the Philippine President Marcos in the
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  Speaker 2: Oval Office with Donald Trump and Donald Trump starts saying
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: that Obama is a villainous thug who's a trader.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: Baracus said Obama is the ringleader Hillary Clinton was right
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: there with him, and so was Sleepy Joe Buden and
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: so with the rest of them, call me Clapper. The
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  Speaker 3: whole group never has a thing like this happened in
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  Speaker 3: the history of our country.
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  Speaker 2: That will not be a comfortable position for Anthony Albineasi
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  Speaker 2: to be and it is not one that he would enjoy.
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  Speaker 2: You know, one can speculate that he is not rushing
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  Speaker 2: to experience that. Look, all the suggestions out of the
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  Speaker 2: White House at the moment is still that of all
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  Speaker 2: the countries that they like, we are at the top
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  Speaker 2: of the list. And there's no doubt that Australia meeting
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  Speaker 2: America where it wants to be on beef is going
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  Speaker 2: to help Anthony Albinezi in the future.
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  Speaker 1: That was The Australian's Richard Ferguson. You can check out
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: all our outstanding political coverage anytime at the Australian dot
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