Trump tariffs spark questions over US alliance
Andrew Tillett, AFR, Foreign affairs, defence correspondent, 3 Apr 25
The alliance with the United States is facing its toughest test in decades after Donald Trump imposed a 10 per cent tariff on Australian exports as part of his escalating trade war, which has sent shockwaves around the world and heightened the risk of a global recession.
Markets plunged on news of Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs, with Australian stocks shedding more than $21 billion, while traders bet the Reserve Bank could cut interest rates up to four times this year.
Australia escaped Trump’s tariffs relatively unscathed, with just the minimum baseline of 10 per cent applied to goods exported to the US, although the President singled out the longstanding ban on American beef as a grievance.
A government source, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivities, said there had been indications from the US that it was willing to negotiate to reduce or remove tariffs on Australian exports.
However, the government remains on alert for more tariff hikes after pharmaceuticals, copper and gold were among a select few commodities exempted from Trump’s “liberation day” executive order.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the tariffs were totally unwarranted and would prompt some Australians to question the relationship with the US. Former prime minister Paul Keating suggested Trump’s tariff campaign cast doubt on the value of the ANZUS alliance, the cornerstone of Australian defence policy for more than 70 years.
“The administration’s tariffs have no basis in logic and they go against the basis of our two nations’ partnership. This is not the act of a friend,” Albanese said.
The Australian people have every right to view this action by the Trump administration as undermining our free and fair trading relationship and counter to the shared values that have always been at the heart of our two nations’ long-standing friendship. This will have consequences for how Australians see this relationship.”
Keating said the announcement was effectively the death knell of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the US-led military alliance with Europe, a decision which would inform other allied relationships with the US.
“Australia’s clutch of Austral-Americans, that phalanx of American acolytes,
must have choked on their breakfasts, as Donald Trump laid out his blitzkrieg on globalisation, with all its implications for the rupture of cooperation and goodwill among nations,” he said.
“If NATO, America’s principal strategic alliance, is expendable, what credible rationale could underpin US fidelity to ANZUS and with it, to Australia?”
Former foreign minister Bob Carr said the alliance with the US “counts for nothing” and was reason to axe the AUKUS pact, Australia’s agreement to acquire nuclear-powered submarines from the US and UK…………………………………………………………………………………
a mining industry source, speaking anonymously, said the government could buy up critical minerals and stockpile them to use as leverage in future trade negotiations.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said if he won the May 3 election he would use access to Australia’s critical minerals and deeper defence cooperation, particularly in defence industry, as bargaining chips to get tariffs lifted…………………….https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/trump-tariffs-spark-questions-over-us-alliance-20250403-p5lox9
Responses to “Australia’s MUMS FOR NUCLEAR – propaganda wheels within wheels”
Heather Hoff says: March 31, 2025 (extract)
I am Heather Hoff, cofounder of Mothers For Nuclear, and nonprofit based in California, but with informal chapters or groups of mothers and mums around the country and around the world…………………….
Heather Hoff continues (extract)
We are separate and different from the recent organizing Mums for Nuclear under the umbrella of Nuclear for Australia. …………….. As for the mums in Australia, we have already shared some of their stories on our website, and now the same mothers are also speaking up on behalf of Nuclear for Australia.
Terry Mills says: 31 Mar 25
Heather thank you for your contribution.
In Australia we want answers on several fundamental points ranging from where waste will be dumped/stored ?
Is the exemplar for the SMR the Westinghouse model or if not is it a Chinese or Russian alternative (very important)?
What is the delivery/installation/commissioning time frame from time an order is placed ?
What is the fixed cost for acquisition/assembly/installation/commissioning (within ten percent)?
What is the energy output of the small modular reactor (SMR) under consideration : i.e. how many conventional dwellings would be fully serviced and what could an average householder (four persons) expect to pay for that energy over a 12 month period ?
Answers to some of these fundamental questions would certainly assist us in Australia as our politicians have been less than forthcoming.
ThankYou
Bert Hetebry says: 31 Mar 25
Heather, the only question I have is WHY?
Why when we have an abundance of solar power
Why when we have an abundance of wind power
Why when we have battery technology to store energy when wind and sun are not providing that power
Why when nuclear is so hellishly expensive to build
Why when nuclear is not just expensive to build but seems to be too difficult to build in a timely manner
Why when the waste produced becomes a time bomb for future environmental problems.
So yes, Heather, Why?
Roswell says:
Thank you for your comment, Heather. Much appreciated.
Terry speaks for the most of us: we do have questions.
Bert Hetebry says:
Our contributor Roswell has a wonderfully understated sense of humour, an Australian sense of humour which at times is layered with soft, gentle sarcasm.
As he so clearly points out, the mums and mothers he cites have a vested interest in promoting nuclear power.
Kathryn says:
I wonder if these foolish pro-nuclear women and the RWNJs (like that short-sighted political psychopath, Peter Dutton) have STOPPED and given any thought about what the hell our government is going to do with the MASSIVE amount of NUCLEAR WASTE nuclear energy inevitably produces?
Do they realise that nuclear waste is, in fact, RADIOACTIVE for THOUSANDS OF YEARS posing a REAL, perpetual danger and deadly health risk for future GENERATIONS of future Australians? Have they STOPPED – even for a minute – to consider WHERE an inhumane, racist and self-serving LNP regime are likely to DUMP not only the nuclear waste of Australian-generated nuclear power but, likely, to import nuclear waste from other nations (such as America, the UK and/or other European nations) in order to make a “fast buck” at OUR expense?
No doubt, the likes of Dutton et al will consider it quite OK to dump toxic waste in what THEY consider to be “remote” areas of the outback trying to convince themselves (and anyone who will listen) that “nobody lives there” when, in fact, such areas are inhabited by communities of vulnerable indigenous aboriginals and remote farming communities!
Nuclear power = RADIOACTIVE NUCLEAR WASTE and, as such, will NEVER be a safe, acceptable alternative for our children, our grandchildren and our descendants! Australians live in the SUNNIEST continent on the planet. As such, the intensive further research and refinement of SOLAR POWER is the SENSIBLE choice because it can be accessed so easily, is inexpensive to process and, by far, the best, safest and cleanest form of energy available!
Canguro says: 30 Mar 2025
Unlikely to find any MUMS FOR NUCLEAR in Japan, in particular around such districts as Fukushima, Nagasaki, or Hiroshima, along with the Ukrainian mothers in proximity to Chernobyl, or moms close to the Three Mile Island in the USA, or indeed many other moms in the target areas of radiation fallout from a raft of similar incidents of varying severity and the associated human toll.
As Noel Wauchope’s essay implies, selling the sizzle is as equally important as the charred sausage; ironic doesn’t even begin to cover the potential horrors of human endeavour gone awry, as is so often the case and in particular in this instance of the allure of nuclear-fission based energy sources; tens of thousands of highly trained and knowledgeable engineers & technicians and still, things can and do go disastrously wrong.
Much to the distress of early implementers, Oppenheimer & Einstein for example, the lament was that the nuclear genie has well and truly been released and now mankind must find a way to manage this monstrous entity. The attraction persists, and the list of commercial nuclear reactors is extensive across many countries.
I guess the MUMS FOR NUCLEAR are acting out of self-interest as opposed to a detached rational assessment of the pros & cons of nuclear-derived energy for the general benefit of the wider population, given the range of non-potentially lethal options within the renewables sector. Do they hold hen’s parties, where they sit around fondling lumps of uranium or radium… lights out and enjoy the glow?
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