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DANIEL:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Daniel James. This is 7am.

Peter Dutton is making a bold move, aligning himself with Donald Trump.

His colleagues are drawing the comparison, pitching him as strong and decisive. But it’s a political strategy not without its risks. Trump’s return to the White House is already causing global instability, from a new trade war with China to extraordinary announcements on Gaza.

With the election looming, Dutton is hoping a strongman approach will resonate with the electorate during a time when cost of living is the priority.

Today, columnist for The Saturday Paper Paul Bongiorno on how the chaos in the US encroached on the first sitting week of the year and how both leaders are coping.

It’s Friday, February 7.

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DANIEL:

Paul, we’ve just had the first sitting week of parliament for the year and possibly one of the last before the election. What's the mood like in Canberra?

PAUL:

Well, I have to tell you, I was in Parliament House this week and you really can feel the tension. Look, everybody knows in truth, they're only, what, a matter of weeks, a couple of months maybe, from having to face the people and their jobs and their necks are on the line. So they want to make every post a winner. They want to score points against their opponents. And, you know, we get a whiff of that in Question Time, certainly in both houses of the parliament. But I can tell you one thing's for sure, Donald Trump is dominating our politics pretty much in the same way as he's dominating politics around the globe. And the newly installed leader in the Senate of the Coalition, Michaelia Cash. Well, she's now claiming that Dutton is like Trump.

Audio excerpt — Senator Michaelia Cash:

“Certainly under Peter Dutton we will ensure that the years ahead in terms of our alliance with the US are some of the most defining for us and that benefit both Australia and the US.”

PAUL:

And that quote, “the American people”, well they expect action and that's what they're getting and they'll get the exact same attitude under a Peter Dutton government.

DANIEL:

Right, and we've recently seen Dutton himself try to emulate Trump when he announced an Elon Musk-style role for Jacinta Price, as Shadow Minister for Government Efficiency. What can you tell me about the Coalition's plans there and whether acting like Trump is a good move politically?

PAUL:

There's no doubt in appointing Jacinta Price to this job. He's very confident that his star No campaigner, well, can at the very least discomfort the government. And we got more evidence during the week that Price is happy to emulate Trump. Jacinta Price said that the Coalition has ideologically driven program spending. That's the way she put it in its sights, saying she'd like to cut Welcome to Country programs and diversity and inclusion positions. That's straight out of the Trump playbook. But it remains to be seen whether this is popular with voters. One Labor insider said to me that, well, “Cash is doing our job for us”. And by that he meant Trump in opinion polls, especially in the last days of the US presidential election, was massively unpopular in Australia and not much that he's done since he's actually got into the White House would have changed that opinion.

DANIEL:

And Trump's popularity here might take more of a hit depending on how we fare as a result of his trade wars. It’s not just how Trump decides to deal with Australia, but crucially, what happens with China. Can you tell me how the government is reacting to the news that China and the US are slapping each other with tariffs?

PAUL:

Yeah, well the president imposed a 10 per cent tariff on China this week, and Beijing immediately retaliated with tariffs of 15 per cent on US coal and LNG and 10 per cent for crude oil, farm equipment and some vehicles.

Australia readily acknowledges through its Trade Minister, Don Farrell, that this could have an impact here. It could set the ball rolling for a world trade war. And as a middle order trading nation, that would do us a lot of damage. But on ABC Radio, Don Farrell, the trade minister, was urging calm, although he was admitting that he was quite apprehensive about the possible impacts.

Audio excerpt — Don Farrell:

“We want to have a cool, calm and collected approach to this issue. We believe that we have a very strong argument to defend free and fair trade.”

PAUL:

But Farrell says he's going to use the same arguments with Trump's new trade secretary that he used with China to get them to end trade embargoes that you might remember were imposed to punish the Morrison government for its perceived belligerence against China. Peter Dutton, of course, played a key role in stirring anti-China sentiment in that episode, which cost the Liberals dearly among Chinese Australian voters at the last election.

The analysis is that it did cost the Liberals at least three seats that went to Labor. So, some of the stakes are pretty high given that this election is certainly not shaking as a landslide election either way, but a very tight one that could well end in a minority government.

DANIEL:

So Farrell is saying he'll make the case that free and fair trade is the way forward with the US, just like he has with China. Will that work?

PAUL:

Well, that's a very good question. I mean, he has a strong case to make here. We have a huge trade deficit with the United States. We import almost $65 billion worth of American goods annually while we only export $33 billion to them. And I think I could tell you of governments that, Arthur Sinodinos, he was our former ambassador to the United States. He already says that the world trading system, even before Trump came back onto the scene, was in trouble. But it's clear that if you're big enough, you can do whatever you like and get away with it.

Sinodinos, who you might remember, was a former Liberal Cabinet minister. Well, he said, what Trump is interested in is not so much what he can do for you, but what you can do for him, and that really transcends other ideological issues.

DANIEL:

Coming up after the break, the fight over hate speech.

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DANIEL:

Paul, this week President Trump shocked pretty much everyone on the planet when he claimed that the US is going to take over Gaza, kick out 2 million Palestinians who call it home and redevelop it. What was the prime minister's response to this?

PAUL:

Well, you'd have to say that he certainly didn't want to respond. He called a news conference in his courtyard at Parliament House with the health minister to announce a major health policy to take him to the election that actually is government policy and will be activated now at a $1.7 billion boost to public hospital and health services. But the gathered media still, I think, were reeling from the Trump news conference in the White House just an hour or so before.

Audio excerpt — Journalist:

“So, if I may, can I please take you on to the Middle East. I mean, this is a huge breaking story. We would be very keen to hear your reaction.”

Paul:

So Albanese was bombarded with questions, looking to see if Australia would well repudiate this new policy coming out of Washington.

Audio excerpt — Albanese:

“What I would say is that Australia's position is the same as it was this morning as it was last year.”

Paul:

Albanese said that as Australian prime minister he wasn't going to give daily commentary on statements by the US President.

Daniel:

And always came right at the time as the Australian Parliament started debating you hate speech legislation. Paul can you tell me where these laws are up to?

Paul:

Well, on Thursday, after a lot of negotiating, mainly between the Government and the opposition, the amended laws passed the Parliament. So what we now have, and this is quite an eye catching backflip by Labor, we now have laws that enable minimum jail sentences for threatening force or violence against people on the basis of their race, religion, nationality, national or ethnic origin, political opinion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status. Now, if you break these laws, there is a mandatory sentence to be imposed between 1 and 6 years. And this of course is in spite of Labor’s own policy platform, but the home affairs minister Tony Burke and the prime minister say it’s a carve-out of Labor policy, it doesn’t set a precedent. But at the same time as the parliament in what they call the Federation Chamber, was debating these laws. Allegra Spender, the independent member for the Sydney seat of Wentworth, which has a very high Jewish population, well, she moved a motion in the House calling for the Parliament to deplore the appalling and unacceptable rise in anti-Semitism across Australia.

Audio excerpt — The Speaker (House of Representatives):

“Now I give the call to the honourable member for Wentworth.”

Audio excerpt — Allegra Spender:

“Thank you. I seek leave the House to move the following motion that this House one deplores the appalling and unacceptable rise in anti-Semitism across Australia, including violent attacks on synagogues, schools, homes and childcare centres.”

Paul:

It's quite unprecedented for the Government to give an independent member the floor of the House in this way. And in fact they moved standing orders so that Spender's motion could be a priority business and it also went up into the Senate. But Spender steered well clear of partisan politics and in fact, there was a starkly different approach to Allegra Spender from the Opposition. In the debate, Julian Leeser and Peter Dutton weren't afraid to politicise it. They still accuse Anthony Albanese of being responsible for anti-Semitism in Australia.

Audio excerpt — Peter Dutton:

“Should we act surprised that this has escalated now to an attempted terrorist attack? No, we shouldn't. And the prime minister needs to show national leadership here…”

PAUL:

This willingness to go for the government's political jugular on the whole issue of anti-Semitism is in line with Dutton last week saying that Penny Wong, our Foreign Minister, and even Mark Dreyfus, our Attorney-General, who is Jewish, weren't fit or proper to represent Australia at the Auschwitz commemoration in Poland.

Audio excerpt — Peter Dutton:

“Penny Wong has real issues in relation to this issue. The relationship with Israel has been trashed. Penny Wong can't go to Israel and Mark Dreyfus I think was there under sufferance…”

Daniel:

“Paul, can you tell me a little bit about how Peter Dutton has used the outbreak of anti-semitism as a political weapon against the Albanese Government?”

Paul:

Yes, I think we have to stand here that while Dutton accuses Labor of pandering to the Greens, the Muslim and Arab community in some key electorates in Sydney and Melbourne, especially inner city ones, he himself, without doubt has his eyes on three electorates held by the Teal independents that have significant Jewish voting populations. I thought, though it was edifying to see the independent member for Goldstein, Zoe Daniel, her electorate is one of those electorates with a high Jewish population. She told the Parliament that no Jewish person in Australia should be blamed for the actions of a government in Israel. But she spoke, I thought quite eloquently of the twin tragedies of this conflict.

Audio excerpt — Zoe Daniel:

“The suffering in Gaza and to some degree the West Bank and the fear among Jewish communities co-exist. Their peace and their safety is intertwined.”

Paul:

“Hatred must not be allowed to fester”, she said, adding “life and death must never be weaponised for political gain”. Hate in all its forms, Zoe Daniel told the Parliament, including anti-Semitism must never be allowed to shape our discourse. I'm afraid that horse has bolted, but I think it's a timely prick of our consciences.

DANIEL:

It's certainly a lovely sentiment, but like, you said the horse has bolted. Paul, it’s going to be quite a year. Thank you so much for your time.

Paul:

Thank you, Daniel. Bye.

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DANIEL:

Also in the news today

The prime minister has announced an $8 million dollar relief fund for flood stricken communities in north Queensland.

$1 million dollars will be made available to local governments that have experienced almost two metres of rain over the past week and disaster recovery payments of up to $1000 dollars will also be made available for those affected.

And

Foreign minister Penny Wong has launched an international gender equality strategy, to advance the human rights of women and girls.

The government says the strategy focuses on five priorities, including ending gender based violence, protecting reproductive health, gender-responsive peace and security, and gender equitable climate action.

7am is a daily show from Schwartz Media and The Saturday Paper.

It’s made by Atticus Bastow, Cheyne Anderson, Chris Dengate, Erik Jensen, Ruby Jones, Sarah McVeigh, Travis Evans, Zoltan Fecso and me, Daniel James.

Our theme music is by Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan of Envelope Audio.

Thanks for listening to the show, see you next week.

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