Murray Olds: Australian correspondent on Donald Trump spotlighting Australian beef as part of 'Liberation Day' trade crackdown

US President Donald Trump has singled out Australia’s beef trade as part of his announcement that the United States would impose a 10 percent global tariff as well as 'reciprocal tariffs' on many countries.

Australia banned US beef in 2003 to protect the country from mad cow disease, foot and mouth disease and other conditions.

Trump claimed that if Australia doesn't want their beef, the US will stop taking it from Australia.

Australian correspondent Murray Olds says Australia, like many other countries, prefers to be thorough to avoid biosecurity concerns.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
International correspondence with ends in Eye Insurance, Peace of Mind
for New Zealand business. Murray Oldiers with US Australia correspondent Murray,
good afternoon, Hey mate.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
How you going? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Good, thank you. So I thought I albo sum that
up quite well. It just doesn't make a lot of sense,
makes no.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Sense at all. I mean percent and all Australian exports
and every other country's exports into America make those imports
at their end, the imports that they take from US
and you and every other country around the world just
makes them ten percent more expensive. And I'll give you
the example. I mean, he's talking about Australian beef exports
to the United States worth three point three billion dollars

(00:38):
last week. Now I'm not a farmer, but I did
see a stat a couple of weeks back. Now, Australia
supplies almost fifty percent of the beef consumed in America.
Apparently now most of that goes into hamburgers, because apparently
the Australian beef that has sold into America is particularly
lean and that's what they like. So he said, oh,

(01:00):
you know, you're not allowing any beef imports from America
to get into Australia. Well, that's because we've got biosecurity
rules you half with, the same as New Zealand's got
biosecurity rules. You can't have stuff coming in, agricultural products
coming in that aren't one hundred and one percent Reggie
Didge in terms of biosecurity, it's everything that this country

(01:20):
stands for, same as New Zealand. You can't have I mean,
the risk of foot and mouth, forget it, it's just
not worth it. So he can fulminate all he likes
and waivers arms around the Orange half with but under
no circumstance. And this is both sides of politics. Over here,
Dutton is also backing Alban easy and saying no way
known we're going to compromise on that. But naturally we're

(01:43):
in an election campaign. So Peter Dutton says, oh, the
Prime minister's missing an action was the quote I heard today.
Peter Dutton might be better off Ryan having a look
at his own back bench because there's a bunch of
nervous Nelly's in there thinking Peter Dutton is driving the
campaign to this point down the toilet. They insisting this
is all anonymous and you know, it leaks to even

(02:05):
the murder press over here, which is just absolutely red
hot for Peter Dutton. They are saying, Pete, come on, son,
put out some policies. All we know so far is
about he's going to repeal a tax cut for every Australian.
They're going to need more than that between now an
election day.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
All right, Well he's got about a month now. One
hundred and fifty thousand livestock have died in Queensland's outback.
What's this about?

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, dreadful, dreadful, dreadful. Well, they've had so much rain
out in that it's called the Channel Country. It's way
out west in western Queensland. You know, it's very popular
of course with the gray nomads who crisscross the country,
you know, year round. It's a beautiful country out there.
Apparently I've never been there. Oh no, I have been

(02:51):
to long Reach. I beg your pardon, but I'm talking
beyond long Reach. So there are these channels that have
been there for millennia, and whenever it rains, these channels
feed down through the very complex river systems that they've
got out there. The thing is it's so flat, it
basically just sits there, it trickles out. You're going to

(03:12):
have Lake Air full for the first time they reckon
in over half a century. That's how much rain has
been And apparently that is the most magnificent site you'll
see in your life. There are water birds coming from
all over Asia, all over Australia to go to Lake Air.
All the most beautiful carpets of flowers that pop up.
But it's terrible for producers. Beat producers, Goats, sheep, horses,

(03:35):
all manner of livestock are gone. You've got the stat
I saw twenty nineteen. There was a huge flooding disaster
up there. In that flood in twenty nineteen, they lost
six hundred and fifty thousand head of livestock and that
costs two billion dollars. So it's not on that scale,
but boy boy, it's the last thing they want. The

(03:57):
poor buggers are doing it really really tough out there,
and now they've lost all their livestock. Roads are washed away,
fencers are gone. The repair bills is going.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
To be enormous. Yeah, it is tough for them. Murray,
thank you for that. Murray Olds are Australia correspondent.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
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