Anthony Albanese has pushed back at Donald Trump\u2019s crack at Australia for not providing the United States with as much backing over the Iran war as the president believed it should.<\/p>\n
Trump, who made his comment about Australia when asked about British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said he was \u201csurprised\u201d at the Australian government\u2019s response. <\/p>\n
\u201c[Starmer] didn\u2019t want to help us,\u201d he said. \u201cAustralia too, Australia was not great. I was a little surprised by Australia,\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say anybody was great other than the five countries in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a tit-for-tat response, Albanese reiterated to reporters there had been no request to Australia that had not not been agreed to, and said it was up to Trump \u201cto explain his comments. <\/p>\n
“But of course I make the point as well that Australia wasn\u2019t consulted before this action was undertaken, and I respect that. That\u2019s a matter for the United States.<\/p>\n
“What Australia is responsible for and what I, as the Prime Minister of Australia, [is] responsible for is Australia\u2019s response. And we\u2019ve been constructive,\u201d he said, noting the military plane Australia sent to the Middle East. <\/p>\n
Albanese was speaking at a news conference about the fuel crisis, at which he sought to reassure the public while acknowledging uncertainty about the future and emphasising his commitment to national planning. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhile Australia\u2019s fuel supply outlook remains secure over the near term due to the actions that the government\u2019s taken to date, the government has been clear that the longer this war goes on, the greater the impact will be,\u201d the prime minister said. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut we continue to act to prepare and shield Australians from the worst of it.\u201d <\/p>\n
He stressed the importance of a \u201ctruly national coordinated response with all levels of government fulfilling their responsibilities to make sure that the national interest is served\u201d. <\/p>\n
Albanese highlighted the need to avoid the COVID experience where responses varied dramatically between governments. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the lessons of the COVID pandemic is that we made a number of decisions as a nation that could have been made better if there was proper consideration. We also had different systems operating across the eight states and territories.\u201d <\/p>\n
Meanwhile the federal opposition has called for a halving of the excise on fuel for three months. <\/p>\n
In a joint statement Liberal leader Angus Taylor and Nationals leader Matt Canavan said this would reduce fuel prices by about 25 cents a litre. A corresponding cut in the Heavy Vehicle Road User Charge should also be provided, they said. <\/p>\n
Taylor and Canavan proposed offsets to pay for the relief. These were ending the Electric Car Discount, reversing green hydrogen subsidies and tax credits, and
\npausing and strengthening integrity controls on the Home Battery Scheme. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese measures will fully fund the approximate $1.5 billion temporary tax cut for Australian motorists while also easing the broader demand pressures that are driving inflation,\u201d the leaders said. <\/p>\n
Asked about this, Albanese said the opposition wanted cuts to things \u201cthat are making a difference to cost of living\u201d, such as help for buying batteries and EV support. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy government has always been strong on cost of living measures. We\u2019ll continue to do so. We do so in a responsible way in the context of our budget considerations,\u201d Albanese said. <\/p>\n
The government has previously indicated it has not plans to cut excise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Albanese has pushed back at Donald Trump\u2019s crack at Australia for not providing the United States with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-568129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}