Ley Hammers Albanese on Tariff Failure, Energy Policy as Rudd Controversy Divides Government and Opposition
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Opposition leader Sussan Ley refused to back down from her call to remove Kevin Rudd as U.S. ambassador Tuesday, pivoting instead to attack Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s failure to secure tariff relief for 200,000 Australian workers while accusing the government of operating a “part-time broken energy system” that threatens domestic manufacturing.
Ley’s sustained criticism came as Foreign Minister Penny Wong defended both the Washington meeting outcomes and Rudd’s diplomatic work, praising the ambassador’s role in facilitating what she called “a great success” between Albanese and President Donald Trump.
The competing narratives exposed deep partisan divides over Australia’s relationship with the United States, with Ley arguing Albanese secured insufficient outcomes on trade while Wong emphasized achievements on critical minerals and the AUKUS security partnership.
“There was no conversation yesterday in the Oval Office about relief from tariffs,” Ley told reporters in Sydney. “In the UK, the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer was able to negotiate those tariffs down by 50%. Our Prime Minister was unable to do that.”
Ley said 200,000 Australian jobs in steel and aluminum industries remain exposed to U.S. tariffs despite the Oval Office meeting. She called on Albanese to return to those sectors and negotiate tariff reductions similar to those achieved by Britain.
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Wong countered that Australia currently faces the lowest tariffs of any nation under current U.S. trade policy. “The President made, actually, Australia has the best of any other country in terms of the tariffs applied to us,” Wong said.
The foreign minister said Albanese raised the tariff issue during his meetings with Trump. “Obviously the Prime Minister raised them,” Wong said. “We have a view on tariffs. We’ll continue to engage on that.”
On the Rudd controversy, Ley declined to directly answer whether her earlier call for the ambassador’s removal represented a unilateral decision, instead pivoting to domestic economic issues.
“I welcome all the comments from my talented backbench and I know, like me, that they are focused on the real bread and butter issues that matter to our small businesses, to our households, to our families, to our mums and dads living in the Shire, struggling with a cost of living crisis,” Ley said.
When pressed repeatedly on the ambassador question, Ley said Rudd was Albanese’s choice for the posting and noted the prime minister “has a lot of catching up to do with respect to the relationship with the US and the next steps.”
Wong praised Rudd’s preparatory work leading up to the Trump meeting. “The meeting was a great success and in part that great success was as a consequence of Mr Rudd’s, Ambassador Rudd’s excellent work,” the foreign minister said.
Wong deflected questions about potential hypocrisy in Labor’s warming relationship with Trump after the party previously linked opposition leader Peter Dutton to the American president during election campaigns.
“I think today is a day where the country together can say, well, that was a good outcome for Australia and that’s what we should be focused on,” Wong said. “It was a really warm meeting, a really positive meeting, and it’s in our interest for there to be a good relationship between the Prime Minister and the President.”
Ley devoted significant attention to attacking the government’s energy policy, linking it directly to manufacturing competitiveness and the critical minerals sector.
“We’ve got a Prime Minister that talks about making things in Australia,” Ley said. “How can you make things in Australia with a part-time broken energy system? How can you do that?”
The opposition leader said she has visited numerous businesses where executives explained cost pressures making operations unsustainable. “Unless this government delivers an energy grid that supplies affordable, reliable, baseload power, we won’t make things in Australia,” she said. “And that includes in the resources sector, in the critical mineral sector.”
Ley said Shadow Energy Minister Dan Tehan would lead at least three upcoming policy meetings focused on developing an alternative energy framework. The policy would aim to deliver two fundamentals, according to Ley: a stable, reliable grid providing affordable energy for households and businesses, while still reducing emissions internationally.
“I point once again to the train wreck energy policy of this government and the ridiculous statements of a Prime Minister who says, we are manufacturing and making things in Australia,” Ley said. “Clearly, that cannot happen with a part-time broken energy grid, which is what we see in front of us today.”
The opposition leader invoked the Labor-ACTU partnership model from the late 1980s and early 1990s under Prime Minister Paul Keating and union leader Bill Kelty as a template for workplace relations reform.
“I talked this week about a different workplace relations system. One that harks back, yes, to the Keating-Kelty years when it was all about raising real wages and productivity together,” Ley said. “And when you do those two things together, you’re back in the business and you’re back in the workers.”
Ley accused the current government of failing both workers and employers through its industrial relations approach. “The industrial relations system that this government has is not doing either,” she said.
On the critical minerals agreement announced in Washington, Ley offered qualified praise while emphasizing the need for policy foundations at home.
“Commitments by Australia with respect to critical minerals, and we welcome the start of something. We need to look at the detail,” Ley said. “But nothing about the tariff burden for our steel and aluminium sector.”
Ley also criticized what she characterized as excessive government spending contributing to inflation. “That runaway spending is contributing to inflation and prices being higher and people being able just to not get by with what they have,” she said.
The opposition leader framed her party’s approach as offering a pathway to help “mums and dads living in the Shire, struggling with a cost of living crisis” through alternative policies on personal income taxes, fiscal discipline and what she termed “a fairer future for Gen Z and Millennials.”
Wong emphasized the positive outcomes from the Washington meetings, highlighting Trump’s renewed commitment to the AUKUS security partnership and the critical minerals framework.
“We’re really pleased to see the President back in AUKUS and to make clear we would get the submarines,” Wong said. “And we’re really pleased to see the announcement with the Prime Minister of a really important critical minerals deal. These are good outcomes for Australia.”
When asked about concerns that Australia might appear too closely aligned with one side of U.S. politics, Wong offered a brief response. “We met with the President of the United States. That’s what the Prime Minister of the country does,” she said.
Wong noted that the Washington meeting included compliments from both leaders, referencing a moment when Albanese told Trump he had used the president’s praise in campaign materials. The comment drew questions about Labor’s previous election strategy of linking Dutton to Trump.
The partisan dispute over the Washington visit comes as both major parties position themselves ahead of federal elections expected within the next year. Ley’s focus on domestic economic issues, particularly energy costs and cost of living pressures, reflects opposition strategy to emphasize pocketbook concerns facing younger voters and families.
The energy policy debate has become a central point of differentiation, with the opposition promising baseload power solutions while the government pursues renewable energy transitions alongside emissions reduction targets.
The tariff issue remains unresolved, with Australia facing a 10% levy on exports to the United States despite the positive tenor of the Albanese-Trump meeting. Whether ongoing diplomatic engagement produces tariff relief could become a key test of the bilateral relationship’s strength as both nations navigate changing global trade dynamics.
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