With less than eight hours until Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs take effect, the Coalition is calling on the prime minister to get on the phone with the US president in a last-ditch attempt to secure an exemption.
Coalition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
After White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said there would be no exemptions, Housing Minister Clare O’Neil insisted discussions were still under way, but wouldn’t detail what negotiations might take place.
“I will leave it to the PM to speak about the ways in which he is going to engage with this subject over the last 24 hours,” she said on Seven’s Sunrise.
After criticising the government for not doing enough to secure the exemption, Liberal senator Jane Hume said she was “urging the prime minister to pick up the phone”.
“This is the last chance. I am not saying this with my Coalition hat on; I’m not talking about things that have gone wrong, but for the sake of your children, my children, [and] the prosperity of the nation in the future, this is the time to pick up the phone and do something. The prime minister has failed to do that.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese previously secured Trump’s consideration on a tariff exemption in a phone call.
