Subjects: Welcome to Country Spending, US Trade Tariffs
E&OE…
Sharri Markson: But first, let’s have a look at this story in The Daily Telegraph today. DFAT spent $100,000 on Welcome to Country ceremonies over the two years to July 2024. And two examples of this were $6,600 on a Smoking and Welcome to Country ceremony in October 2023 and then $5,500 and a Welcome to Country in March 2023 for a delegation from Malaysia. Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister David Coleman joins me now. David, thanks for your time. Will these ceremonies be a focus for the Coalition if you win government?
David Coleman: Well yeah, Sharri. I mean, we’ve got to spend every cent carefully. We are in a cost-of-living crisis – the making of the Albanese Government. And for ordinary Australians to see six figure amounts spent just within one department, within DFAT on these ceremonies, most people would say that’s far too much. Now there are occasions where these ceremonies can be appropriate, but to be dozens and dozens of them – the Government needs to have its hands on the levers controlling public spending. And Minister Wong is responsible for this. I mean, she’s the boss of the department and the Minister either stands behind this expenditure or she doesn’t, and she should be held accountable for it.
Sharri Markson: Where do you draw the line when it comes to a Welcome to Country ceremony? We’ve heard Jacinta Price say there’s too many of them, but how do you determine if they should or shouldn’t take place?
David Coleman: Yeah well, look, I think you’ve got to use common sense. And there will be some occasions, as I said Sharri, major events and so on, where it may be appropriate. But it’s certainly not appropriate basically, every time a group of people get together, which is what seems to be happening now. And we’ve got to be sensible about this. It’s not Penny Wong’s money, it’s not Anthony Albanese’s money, it’s the money of everyday Australians. And of course, we’ve got to be cautious in how we spend that and that’s what they haven’t done here and that’s what we would do in government.
Sharri Markson: I want to ask you about the trade tariffs that Trump has signed an executive order on. He says he’s giving consideration to exempting Australia from the latest round of tariffs. But his top trade adviser, Pete Navarro, who I know quite well, he singled out Australia for criticism. Have a look.
Clip extract of Pete Navarro – Counsel to the US President: Australia is just killing our aluminium market and President Trump says, no, no, we’re not, we’re not doing that anymore.
Sharri Markson: So David, this is a difficult situation because clearly Malcolm Turnbull in the past and Scott Morrison in the past did manage to negotiate these exemptions with Trump. But now there’s a Prime Minister who’s criticised the President in the past, an Ambassador who has done the same, and a Foreign Minister who has done the same, and I just, I’m not hopeful, I’m not overly hopeful that if Albanese couldn’t convince Trump in a 40 minute call. Well, I mean, this comes in in about three weeks’ time. What’s your perception?
David Coleman: Well, we’ll see Sharri. Look the right thing to do here is focus on the national interest. And our national interest is we don’t want these tariffs on Australian goods because that’s bad for Australia. And so we’ve all got to, in a sense, hope the Government gets this right. And they should because we did it. We did it – the circumstances are very similar. The Coalition was able to manage it. And it is very unfortunate that the Prime Minister’s made those remarks in the past, and Minister Wong’s made those remarks, and Kevin Rudd’s made those remarks, and we hope that doesn’t have a bearing on this because this is important in our national interest and we’ve got strong arguments. We have a trade surplus, the US has a trade surplus with us, we’re spending heavily in US defence infrastructure. So very strong arguments here and the Government just needs to get it done.
Sharri Markson: All right, David Coleman, appreciate your time.