April 2, 2025 • 6 mins
Our Australian correspondent gives us his take on Trump’s tariffs and why Aussie beef is being called out. He also talks about some shattering livestock losses after the SW Queensland floods.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's our guy across the Dutch. His name is Chris Russell,
long standing Australian farming correspondent. Chris, what do you make
of Liberation Day? Did you assies get off lightly or
were you being torn one by Trump? I see he's
called you out for not taking any American beef. I
didn't think you needed any.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Well, we definitely don't need any, of course, but that's
not a reason though. I mean, the American farmers would
claim they could do their beef as well, but in
fact they can't over there, particularly grinding beef from Australia.
There's no way that they have enough grinding beef for
their demand for hamburger meat. Having said that, it is
a tit for tat thing. And we've always had biosecurity arrangements,
(00:42):
not just in the US but from everywhere by bringing
you raw meat into Australia fearing things like mad cow disease,
bovine tuberculosis. We've now got this new Avian H five.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
N one flu, which is a big story here at the.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Moment because you know that could be our next COVID
nineteen type pandemic. So all of all of those reasons
we don't allow raw meat into Australia. Now, both the
opposition leader and the Prime Minister, of course you're in
election mode at the moment, have both said they will,
under no circumstances compromise that for America or for anybody else,
(01:18):
So that is.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Going to be a given.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
At one stage during a Trump's speech this morning, I
was feared that he was going to ban our beef
all together, because he talked about reciprocation and then he
talked about the fact that we banned theirs, and from
midnight you know we're going to do the same. I
don't blame them, I think is the word he said,
but we're going to be the same. But in fact
there's no side of that at this stage. So we're
looking at a ten percent tariff, which seems to be
(01:43):
the baseline on all countries.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
I've kind of based that on.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
The fact that we pay they have to pay ted
GST on all goods when they come in, like we
do on anything else here. So I was thinking, well,
on that basis, New Zealand's got off pretty lately because
their GST is five percent higher than ours.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
But maybe it's not that.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Maybe it's just the fact that he wants a baseline
tariffray to limit imports, and our current beef business is
worth about three point three billion dollars last year to
us in Australia. It would be certainly a big loss
if we suddenly had that completely banned.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
But given their demand.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
For our grinding beef's almost insatiable, I don't see the
ten percent having making much difference to the amount of
that that's being important, because they just don't have the
beef over there to replace what they would buy from US,
even ten percent.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Dira Jamen Well, Ultimately the American consumer is going to
pay the final price chriss.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Well, exactly right.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And that's always been our argument that if you're sort
of self destructing if you start putting high taxes on
stuff that you don't have in America. But the beef
farmers and particularly the lamb farmers, and remember Australia and
New Zealand really created their lamb market over there. When
I lived in America in the seventies, you couldn't buy lamb,
you know, everyone just had beef and the bunch is
(03:00):
all hated sheep, of course, and it was still the
old Wild West of philosophy about sheep, but nowadays it's
a lot of lamb is consumed. And of course they've
always grizzled that they can't produce the lamb or the
beef as cheaply as we can, partly because in the
north they have such a harsh winter they have to
house all their animals and all their feedlots, whereas we're
(03:23):
grazing all year round scenario, So they are going to
shoot themselves the foot, and I think they recognize that.
And there's no doubt that the big push has been
against imported manufacturing goods, and he wants to recreate all
those little businesses all around America. And that's what he
said he would do it, that's what he's done, that's
what got him elected. So I'm not surprised that he's
(03:43):
done it, and it'll be a watch and see. But
I think our big one is agriculture. I think probably
it's even slightly better than.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
We expect that.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
I think most people were thinking we might get twenty
percent and we've been hit with ten percent.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Jomie, We've got to count a blessings. Chris Russell. Shocking
numbers stock loss numbers coming out of that Southwest Queensland flood.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yes, Look, the big shock here is the speed with
which this flood came in. They had eighteen months worth
of rain in forty eight hours.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
That's a lot of rain.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It's very flat country out there, it has nowhere to
drain to very quickly, and this, of course flood will
stick around as they always do out there, for.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Six eight weeks.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
There's no chance that Jill and I are going to
be able to get ourselves in our caravan up to
southern Queensland anytime soon, which we normally head off in
the middle of the year. Somewhere up there, they're talking
early estimates around one hundred and five thousand head of animal, cattle.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
And sheep lost, which is a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
In twenty nineteen, you might remember up in northern Queensland
we lost over six hundred thousand head with flash floods
that happened up there.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
But this has been a lot of water.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And the big criticism here, Jamie, has been that there
is and I didn't know that there's no weather red
at radar and insufficient river gauges between Alice Springs and
Southwest Queensland, so they had no warning of the speed
with which these rivers are right rising, or the speed
with which the rain was actually coming over from the
sidelines in Western Australia, and they've been coming across Australia.
(05:18):
There remnants of those, and so because they had no
radar that all they could do was send helicopters up
and down the rivers, sort of measuring the depths, you know,
with a plumbob but you know by just looking over
the side and saying, oh, that's getting deeper quickly, which
is so primitive in our modern day and age. So
there's been a massive call and both parties have reciprocated,
(05:38):
saying they end to spend more money on more.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Radar weather radar. But they're two eight now, they've had
their rain. They're all flooded.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
These people are all out of their house and it's
absolutely devastating. Some of them lost every animal on their property.
It's going to take years for them to get all
that back again. And I think we've been caught totally
unawares by this, Jamie. When I spoke to you last week,
I had no idea this was I thought it was
just another reign of it. And now we're looking at
the worst flood, well probably ever certainly since nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Okay, Chris Russell, thanks for your time. Maybe we got
off lightly with the ten percent tariff. Happy Liberation Day,
Absolutely faty year Jamie
He's our guy across the Dutch. His name is Chris Russell,
long standing Australian farming correspondent. Chris, what do you make
of Liberation Day? Did you assies get off lightly or
were you being torn one by Trump? I see he's
called you out for not taking any American beef. I
didn't think you needed any.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Well, we definitely don't need any, of course, but that's
not a reason though. I mean, the American farmers would
claim they could do their beef as well, but in
fact they can't over there, particularly grinding beef from Australia.
There's no way that they have enough grinding beef for
their demand for hamburger meat. Having said that, it is
a tit for tat thing. And we've always had biosecurity arrangements,
(00:42):
not just in the US but from everywhere by bringing
you raw meat into Australia fearing things like mad cow disease,
bovine tuberculosis. We've now got this new Avian H five.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
N one flu, which is a big story here at the.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Moment because you know that could be our next COVID
nineteen type pandemic. So all of all of those reasons
we don't allow raw meat into Australia. Now, both the
opposition leader and the Prime Minister, of course you're in
election mode at the moment, have both said they will,
under no circumstances compromise that for America or for anybody else,
(01:18):
So that is.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Going to be a given.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
At one stage during a Trump's speech this morning, I
was feared that he was going to ban our beef
all together, because he talked about reciprocation and then he
talked about the fact that we banned theirs, and from
midnight you know we're going to do the same. I
don't blame them, I think is the word he said,
but we're going to be the same. But in fact
there's no side of that at this stage. So we're
looking at a ten percent tariff, which seems to be
(01:43):
the baseline on all countries.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
I've kind of based that on.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
The fact that we pay they have to pay ted
GST on all goods when they come in, like we
do on anything else here. So I was thinking, well,
on that basis, New Zealand's got off pretty lately because
their GST is five percent higher than ours.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
But maybe it's not that.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Maybe it's just the fact that he wants a baseline
tariffray to limit imports, and our current beef business is
worth about three point three billion dollars last year to
us in Australia. It would be certainly a big loss
if we suddenly had that completely banned.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
But given their demand.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
For our grinding beef's almost insatiable, I don't see the
ten percent having making much difference to the amount of
that that's being important, because they just don't have the
beef over there to replace what they would buy from US,
even ten percent.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Dira Jamen Well, Ultimately the American consumer is going to
pay the final price chriss.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Well, exactly right.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And that's always been our argument that if you're sort
of self destructing if you start putting high taxes on
stuff that you don't have in America. But the beef
farmers and particularly the lamb farmers, and remember Australia and
New Zealand really created their lamb market over there. When
I lived in America in the seventies, you couldn't buy lamb,
you know, everyone just had beef and the bunch is
(03:00):
all hated sheep, of course, and it was still the
old Wild West of philosophy about sheep, but nowadays it's
a lot of lamb is consumed. And of course they've
always grizzled that they can't produce the lamb or the
beef as cheaply as we can, partly because in the
north they have such a harsh winter they have to
house all their animals and all their feedlots, whereas we're
(03:23):
grazing all year round scenario, So they are going to
shoot themselves the foot, and I think they recognize that.
And there's no doubt that the big push has been
against imported manufacturing goods, and he wants to recreate all
those little businesses all around America. And that's what he
said he would do it, that's what he's done, that's
what got him elected. So I'm not surprised that he's
(03:43):
done it, and it'll be a watch and see. But
I think our big one is agriculture. I think probably
it's even slightly better than.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
We expect that.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
I think most people were thinking we might get twenty
percent and we've been hit with ten percent.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Jomie, We've got to count a blessings. Chris Russell. Shocking
numbers stock loss numbers coming out of that Southwest Queensland flood.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yes, Look, the big shock here is the speed with
which this flood came in. They had eighteen months worth
of rain in forty eight hours.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
That's a lot of rain.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It's very flat country out there, it has nowhere to
drain to very quickly, and this, of course flood will
stick around as they always do out there, for.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Six eight weeks.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
There's no chance that Jill and I are going to
be able to get ourselves in our caravan up to
southern Queensland anytime soon, which we normally head off in
the middle of the year. Somewhere up there, they're talking
early estimates around one hundred and five thousand head of animal, cattle.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
And sheep lost, which is a lot.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
In twenty nineteen, you might remember up in northern Queensland
we lost over six hundred thousand head with flash floods
that happened up there.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
But this has been a lot of water.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And the big criticism here, Jamie, has been that there
is and I didn't know that there's no weather red
at radar and insufficient river gauges between Alice Springs and
Southwest Queensland, so they had no warning of the speed
with which these rivers are right rising, or the speed
with which the rain was actually coming over from the
sidelines in Western Australia, and they've been coming across Australia.
(05:18):
There remnants of those, and so because they had no
radar that all they could do was send helicopters up
and down the rivers, sort of measuring the depths, you know,
with a plumbob but you know by just looking over
the side and saying, oh, that's getting deeper quickly, which
is so primitive in our modern day and age. So
there's been a massive call and both parties have reciprocated,
(05:38):
saying they end to spend more money on more.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Radar weather radar. But they're two eight now, they've had
their rain. They're all flooded.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
These people are all out of their house and it's
absolutely devastating. Some of them lost every animal on their property.
It's going to take years for them to get all
that back again. And I think we've been caught totally
unawares by this, Jamie. When I spoke to you last week,
I had no idea this was I thought it was
just another reign of it. And now we're looking at
the worst flood, well probably ever certainly since nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Okay, Chris Russell, thanks for your time. Maybe we got
off lightly with the ten percent tariff. Happy Liberation Day,
Absolutely faty year Jamie
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