Australian news and politics live updates: Trump must be ‘taken by his word’ after tariff move, diplomat says

We’ll wrap up our live coverage of the day’s antics here. You’ve been tariff-ic company (ha!)

It’s been a day dominated by a will-they won’t-they tug of war over Donald Trump’s order to impose sweeping 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium the US.

Then Anthony Albanese - who Mr Trump called “a very fine man” - seemed to sweet-talk the POTUS to exempt Australia from the taxes.

But, hours later, another White House proclamation put Australia back on the chopping block, accusing us of breaking our word on curbing aluminium exports.

It’s a lot to unpack, and you can get the full story (on this and plenty more) in the latest edition of The Nightly.

Join us tomorrow for another bumper day of blogging. Thanks for joining us!

Just when Sydneysiders thought the train chaos was over, rail unions have flagged more industrial action to disrupt daily commutes this week.

Weeks after the combined rail unions agreed not to conduct any major actions that could cripple the city, a number of unions announced dual strike action starting Wednesday.

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) threatened to slow trains to 23 km/hr below the speed limit in zones of 80km/h or above as part of a two week action starting from midnight (AEDT).

While the Electrical Trades Union, whose workers conduct maintenance on the railways, flagged separate action when Sydney Trains employees would take part in hourly “work stoppages” from 8am until 4pm on Wednesday.

ETU workers were also expected to descend on the streets outside NSW parliament in protest over stalled progress in pay and work condition negotiations.

Late on Tuesday, however, NSW Transport Minister John Graham announced the government had struck a deal with the RTBU to delay the “go-slow” action for two days.

At this stage, there have been no changes to train timetables. Passengers of Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink are advised to continue to check travel apps.

Mr Sinodinos, who served as ambassador at the tail end of the first Trump presidency, also suggested Australia needed to put its “best foot forward” to keep the POTUS on side.

He said it is possible the Trump White House is split into two factions over the tariff issue and diplomats would not rush to lobby via “back channels” too soon.

“There’s possibly a tussle between the national security diplomatic people and the more purist economic and trade people who think there should be no exemptions,” Mr Sinodinos told the ABC.

He said it was likely to early to have current ambassador Kevin Rudd or other diplomats race in to lobby for Australia’s interests. Not after Anthony Albanese apparently succeeded in convincing Mr Trump against taxing Australian metal.

Mr Sinodinos said the fact that the POTUS called Mr Albanese “a very fine man” after their phone call earlier today was “an indication that Trump felt that the phone conversation went well”.

“I think it was all probably pretty professional and from the government’s point of view, probably the call went as well as they could have expected in the circumstances.”

Former Australian ambassador to the US Arthus Sinodinos has knocked back the suggestion our diplomats could use the AUKUS submarine deal as a bargaining chip in the tariff tussle with Donald Trump.

Appearing on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Mr Sinodinos said putting AUKUS on the table to keep Australian metal exports exempt from tariffs could come across as a threat and backfire badly.

“This is dangerous territory, linking trade and security. In the best of all possible worlds you try and keep them separate,” he said, adding that it was a risk to go tit-for-tat.

“The problem we face is that if we escalate it, in this way now will we back off or will we decide, ‘No, if you’re gonna threaten me like this I’m gonna go ahead and make sure you don’t get an exemption’. “

Gold miners are basking in the glow of yet another record price high for the precious metal — even as it comes off levels that pushed it close to the $US3000-an-ounce mark.

The spot gold price rose to a new all-time high of $US2911.72/oz in the US overnight Monday shortly after US President Donald Trump said he would announce a 25 per cent tariff on steel and aluminium imports.

The uncertainty spooked global financial markets and stoked demand for a safe haven.

Bullion climbed further after Mr Trump officially imposed the tariffs, which are set to start on March 4. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said after an early morning phone call with Mr Trump on Tuesday that he was hopeful of a carveout for local suppliers.

Get the full story.

Turns out, Anthony Albanese’s negotiation tactics might not have been enough to stop Donald Trump from including Australia in his executive order to enforce tariffs on steel and aluminium entering the US.

In a proclamation issued on Tuesday afternoon (AEDT), hours after the US President signed an executive order imposing the tax, Australia was accused of breaking its word on curbing aluminium exports to the US.

“The volume of US imports of primary aluminum from Australia has also surged and in 2024 was approximately 103 percent higher than the average volume for 2015 through 2017,” the proclamation states.

“Australia has disregarded its verbal commitment to voluntarily restrain its aluminum exports to a reasonable level.”

Full story here.

Question Time has wrapped for the day, and it was a bit of a mixed bag.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton opened by asking the PM to rule out changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax. This came after Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather asked him a day earlier whether he’d make the changes the minor party have been advocating for.

Anthony Albanese didn’t really rule it out either time. Today he said the Government’s housing policy wasn’t changing the concessions, but was the $32 billion Homes for Australia plan.

The Coalition then pivoted to asking Labor about the “bulk billing crisis”, which allowed Health Minister Mark Butler to invoke former PM Julia Gillard to tell the Opposition “we won’t take lectures” from the former Government who “spent 41 years trying to dismantle Medicare”.

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor took a crack at Treasurer Jim Chalmer’s plan to tax concessions on super balances over $3 million - which has not yet got the support of the crossbench. Dr Chalmers said this isn’t new policy, and queried why his opponent was bringing it up now.

From Labor’s backbench, there were dixers about the critical minerals tax, which will pass the Parliament this afternoon; about the Government’s economic management; housing policirs; school reforms; and improving backlog for veterans (with a warning the Coalition wants to cut these frontline services).

We’ve got a big update to a story we published earlier on a tragic plane crash in the US.

One person was killed and three injured when a jet crashed into a parked jet at Scottsdale Airport in Arizona.

It’s now been revealed that the crashed jet was owned by Motley Crue lead singer Vince Neil.

Neil was not on board when the crash took place. It’s understood the crash was caused by the primary landing gear on the arriving jet failing.

The Scottsdale incident comes after three major US aviation disasters in the past two weeks.

Read the full report here.

Here’s one to file under “unexpected” for the week.

7NEWS reporter Chris Reason has spoken with Viktor Bout, the world’s most notorious arms dealer, on the plight of captured Melbourne soldier Oscar Jenkins.

Bout was portrayed by Nicolas Cage in the 2005 movie Lord of War, and says the only way for the Albanese Government to get Mr Jenkins back is through a prisoner exchange program with Russia.

Read the full, exclusive story here.

Australia’s former ambassador to the US Arthur Sinodinos has warned Donald Trump “needs to be taken by his word” after he followed through on his election promises to introduce tariffs.

Most recently, Mr Trump announced he would raise tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports to 25 per cent. ​Anthony Albanese narrowly convinced Mr Trump to consider excempting Australia from the tax.​

Mr Sinodinos told Sky News the move shows the president was clearly prepared to follow through on his eletion promises, especially those to do with tariffs.

“He believes tariffs is the most beautiful word in the English language. He believes that tariffs raise money for the US Treasury,” he said.

The ex-Liberal frontbencher said the fact Opposition leader Peter Dutton backed the Prime Minister’s moves matter shows how seriously our leaders take the issue and not being treated as “just another country, rather than a very strong ally and partner” to the US.

Mr Sinodinos said Australia had “some pretty big friends” in the US Congress who would advocate for Australia as our diplomats - including ambassador Kevin Rudd - attempt to navigate the fraught waters of this Trump presidency.

“A lot of the work on the ground will be done by Kevin (Rudd) and the (embassy) team, and a lot of that is preparatory to also getting ministers like Don Farrell involved,” he said.

“It may well be that we also have a strategy where we remind the Americans areas like critical minerals, where we can work together, which are very important.”

He said resources minister Madeleine King could also be deployed to engage in talks.

“A lot of Americans say the best way to handle someone like the president is to be confident, to go in there… to put stuff on the table that shows that you can work together for mutual benefit.

“So it’s all about how you conduct yourself. Because he is the sort of leader that he thinks if I’m dealing with someone weak, he’ll treat them accordingly.”