Murray Olds: Australian correspondent on Westpac's boss urging Australians to stop complaining about tariffs

Over in Australia, Westpac's head is urging people to stop complaining over the new tariffs set out by the Trump administration.

The US President has recently confirmed Australia won't be exempt from new tariffs on steel and aluminium imports going forward.

Australian correspondent Murray Olds says it's likely Australia will face more tariffs in the coming days - and experts are suggesting Australia should shift focus to the Asia-Pacific region. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mary olds is our Australia correspondent, Marry Good afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hey a Ryan, good afternoon.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Good to heavy here. Now wispec's boss has said, stop
the whining about these tariffs.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yeah, absolutely, you know, and there's a caveat on there.
Don't forget that there may be more tariffs and posed
on Australia and other countries in the next few weeks ahead.
But when you look at what has happened to Australia
and just in you know, we'll confine our remarks to Australia.
The twenty five percent tariff on Australian steel and aluminium
is negligible. Really, the two commodities together are worth around

(00:33):
one billion dollars last year in exports to America. Total
exports from Australia six hundred and fifty billion. Now, the
United States only makes fifty percent of the steel that
needs every year, so it's going to get the balance
from somewhere. And guess what, all of a sudden, there's
twenty five percent more expensive for American manufacturers and consumers.
So not sure where where trup's going with this. And

(00:55):
this is the context for a statement this morning Sydney,
the Westpac chief executive guy called Anthony Miller. He says, listen, listen,
don't start crying about Washington. Have you guess what's an
air doorstep? For example, Indonesia two hundred and eighty four
million people, just a stone throw way. It's a drive
in a nine eye. He says, we should focus on

(01:18):
the Asia Pacific. Look at India one point four billion people,
a bloody sight closer than the United States. He said, listen,
don't bite back. And Anthony Aubanize already said we're not
going to. But it's very interesting that Miller said this
at the Institute of Finance event here in Sydney. He said,
have a look at agriculture and education, two supremely important

(01:40):
commodities for Asia. Agricultural goods and education. Australia already makes
about thirty five thirty six billion dollars a year from
hosting international students here. It's a huge export industry. Okay,
And Miller's also said coal, iron gas very important. But listen,
we've got to stop crying about Washington and towards Asia.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah, fair enough point too. Now, Peter Dutton, he's denying
claims that his party's looking to knife him that's about.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well, that's right. I mean, in the context of the
upcoming election, I'm not surprised to see these stories as
a phony election campaign on right now. And I hear
the opposition in Canberra whining away about Alban Easy, saying, oh,
we should have we should have had a carve out
special for Australia. It doesn't work that way, and the
opposition knows that it's just cheap politicking trying to make

(02:30):
alban Easy look hopeless. Well, the Dutton's apparently, according to
some reports, he had notably in the Murder Press, Dunton's
looking pretty hopeless. For members of his own back bench.
They say, listen, pal, what are you doing? Where are
the policies and what about that half what you've got
as a shadow treasurer. I mean, please, honestly, it wouldn't
feed that fella. His name is now. But Dutton's hit back.

(02:53):
He said, listen, we're going to release our policies in
our own good time. And you know, I'm expecting to
see the bulk of Dutton's Budget reply speech, which would
be later this month. The Bulka BET's going to be
laying out some of us wares for the election. But
you know the government's really belting Dutton and he's the
key focus for a lot of the attacks from the government.

(03:15):
For example, the Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong says, listen,
Dutton's just not cut out to be prime minister. You
know his colleague are saying, we don't know what Dutton
stands for, never real leadership. That's what I'll tell you.
He's just not cut out for the job. So the
gloves are off. It's on for young for one and all.
And we haven't even had the election campaign call.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Don't even have a date yet. Yeah, let's talk about
this hideous woman who American apparently a hunting influencer. Have
you heard of a hunt? What there was before any
were hunting? And no, no, what's she doing with?

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Call me stupid, Ryan, I've never heard of it.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
What's she doing with your one bets?

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Well, look, she's apparently wandering around the outback with an
Australian fellow who's taking photographs of her interacted with Australian wildlife.
She's a you say, a hunting influencer. She goes with
the name of Sam Strays Okay strays is and stray
animals and here she is. She's apparently hear and this
footage comes from last year. We understand. She's shown in

(04:14):
the footage catching a little baby wombat on the side
of the road during the night. An Australian man is filming,
laughing like a drain. She runs across the road holding
this little baby wombat up in front of the camera,
the little feet of dangling in the asses, and the
man says, look out, the mum's chasing her. Look out,
look out, well please, and she posts this on wherever

(04:37):
the hell they post these things and a partly designed
to influence people anyway. The penalties for this up to
a quarter million dollars if you don't mind, you silly woman,
and up to seven years in jail. I mean, look,
to be fair, the wombat wasn't hurt. Mother and baby
are reunited pretty quickly. But I mean for stupidity. It's

(04:59):
a bit hard to think anything more stupid, really, isn't it,
don't you think?

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yeah? That is completely stupid. In fact, the only thing
dumber than doing it was putting it on social media.
You'd have to say, Mary, there you go, thank you
for that. Murray Old's our Australia correspondent. For more from
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