Early, Dutton echoed Trump - Trump campaign chief claims he visited Australia to advise Liberals at start of election campaign .. then Dutton woke up, as he realized Trump approval in Australia was at some 20%.
"Labor and Coalition vow PBS will not be bargained over in US trade war"
Exclusive: Chris LaCivita, Trump’s presidential campaign co-manager, tells undercover reporters he advised on ‘structural issues’ related to Peter Dutton; the Coalition denies LaCivita was involved in campaign in any way
See all our Australia 2025 election coverage
Tom McIlroy Chief political correspondent Thu 1 May 2025 09.43 AEST
Donald Trump greets Chris LaCivita at a campaign event in January 2024. The Republican strategist claims he visited Australia to advise the Liberal party near the start of the election campaign. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP
One of the architects of Donald Trump’s 2024 victory claims he made an unpublicised visit to Australia to advise the Liberal party about “structural issues” related to Peter Dutton ahead of the federal election.
The veteran Republican strategist Chris LaCivita told undercover reporters posing as prospective clients for political consulting work he was working as a private consultant on the visit to Australia, not in an official capacity or as an adviser to the US president.
‘‘I was in Australia two weeks ago helping the Liberal party there, on some of their structural issues that they were having with Peter Dutton,” LaCivita said on 16 April in the first of two calls. Australia’s election campaign began on 28 March.
“Things somewhat seem to be moving in the right direction there… those efforts are strictly political in nature and don’t require me to engage with the United States government.”
VIDEO -- ]Trump campaign chief tells undercover reporters he advised Liberal party ahead of election – video
LaCivita told the undercover reporters in a second call on 24 April he made the trip without publicity. He contrasts this to media reporting about his paid work with Albania’s opposition party.
“Never knew I was there,” he said, in reference to his claimed visit to Australia. “I try to maintain a degree of discretion … it just it gives us a degree of freedom of movement.”
“Mr LaCivita is not advising, has never advised, and is not involved in any way with the Coalition campaign. Mr Dutton has not met with him.”
In a statement, LaCivita told Guardian Australia: “I did not and do not work for the Liberal Party of Australia. I provide consulting to a wide variety of business interests – some in Australia some in the US etc in terms of a political party – I have not.
“Also, I have never met Mr Dutton, but I hope to when he is elected prime minister.”
LaCivita was Trump’s co-campaign manager in his successful 2024 presidential run, along with the current White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
Trump thanked LaCivita in his victory speech and LaCivita briefly took the microphone to thank the president, saying Trump was “a hell of a candidate, and he’s going to be a hell of a great 47th president”.
Visits and knowledge-sharing between like minded political parties and consultants are not uncommon in election campaigns.
Anthony Albanese has previously talked up ties with UK Labour. The ALP’s campaign boss Paul Erickson offered advice to strategists working to elect Sir Keir Starmer ahead of the UK’s 2024 election. Erickson was later invited to present at Labour’s annual party conference.
A US Marine veteran who received a Purple Heart for service in the first Gulf War, LaCivita helped craft the infamous Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign, considered a fatal blow for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in his 2004 race against George W Bush.
Dutton has distanced himself from associations with Trump during the campaign after initially pursuing policies that nodded to parts of the US president’s agenda – promising to sack 41,000 public servants, announcing a role for senator Jacinta Nampinjinpa Price in pursuing “government efficiency”, claiming students were being “indoctrinated” by the school curriculum and denouncing the ABC and Guardian Australia as “hate media”.
During the second leaders’ debate of the campaign, Dutton said: “We trust the US. I don’t know the president. I’ve not met him.”
Labor has tried to tie Dutton to Trump-style politics as polling showed voters were increasingly uncomfortable with the actions of the US president, particularly following the implementation of trade tariffs. The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has labelled the opposition leader “Dogey Dutton”, referring to the so-called department of government efficiency (Doge) set up by Trump under the leadership of Elon Musk.
Labor is likely to point to claims about LaCivita’s visit as more evidence Dutton’s agenda is being guided by the unpopular Trump, but it also signals close ties between the Coalition and key members of the president’s inner circle, likely advantageous if Dutton wins Saturday’s election.
Campaigning in Western Australia, Albanese said Dutton was concerned with fighting “culture wars”.
“The campaign of the Liberal party has become more and more right-wing under Peter Dutton. That’s just the truth of the matter,” he said.
LaCivita’s credentials within Trump’s orbit are strong. Donald Trump Jr. called him “a supremely competent nuts-and-bolts guy,” in an interview with New York magazine.
“He doesn’t care about getting credit, he doesn’t care about stroking his own ego, he only cares about getting the job done and delivering for my father,” Trump Jr. said.
Trump ups American cost of living, again -- Donald Trump imposes 100 per cent tariffs on branded pharmaceuticals
"Labor and Coalition vow PBS will not be bargained over in US trade war"
Related: Trump Is Squeezing U.S. Farmers on All Sides "Trump's Agenda Of Sabotage, Plunder, Chaos, And Betrayal Is Coming For Red States And Red Places Too" [...] Take the U.S. soybean industry. China is one of the world’s biggest soybean consumers, gobbling up more than 60 percent of the world’s traded soybean supplies over the past five years, according to the American Soybean Association (ASA), making it a crucial market for U.S. farmers. After Trump unleashed his tariffs against much of the world, Beijing struck back by spurning U.S. soybeans—leaving U.S. farmers of the crop scrambling for a lifeline.
“China is hitting back on something that they hope will get the attention of U.S. policymakers,” said Joseph Glauber, a former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture who is now at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
U.S. soybean farmers are starting to feel the pain of that decision. The fall harvest kicks off this month, but China still has yet to book any U.S. soybean purchases—an unusual development that has sent shock waves through the sector. Typically by this time of the year, nearly 40 percent of soybean sales for the marketing year are already booked, according to Caleb Ragland, the president of the ASA. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=176702361
By Georgie Hewson, Emilia Terzon and wires
2 hours ago
The US president says he will impose 100 per cent duties on imported branded drugs. (ABC Radio Canberra: Penny Travers)
The United States will impose a 100 per cent tariff on imports of branded or patented pharmaceutical products from October 1, unless a pharmaceutical company is building a manufacturing plant in the US, President Donald Trump said on Thursday.
"There will, therefore, be no Tariff on these pharmaceutical products if construction has started," Trump said on Truth Social.
Pharmaceutical drugs imported to the US were already slapped with a 25 per cent tariff in May.
The US president said the new tariff on any branded or patented pharmaceutical product would apply to all imports unless the company had already broken ground on a manufacturing plant in the United States.
Pharmaceutical products are one of the top export markets for Australia to the US, worth around $1.6 billion in 2023-24.
However, much of those exports relate to one Australian company, CSL, which sends vast quantities of plasma and other blood products to the United States.
In a statement, CSL told ABC News it was aware of the tariffs and was actively monitoring further announcements.
"In addition to CSL's Australian facilities, we have a very significant United States manufacturing footprint," it said.
"We are already expanding our US capabilities to meet the growing demand for our therapies and we have announced further expansion of significant, new capital investments during the next five years."
"As per previous market guidance, we do not expect any material impact from these tariffs."
The company, which also makes vaccines, already has production capacity in the US, with about 19,000 people employed there.
This includes hundreds of blood collection centres, a plasma processing facility in Illinois, and a vaccines plant in North Carolina.
Several major pharma companies based here have previously told ABC News that they will not be affected as they do not export to the US.
Pharmaceutical companies Clarity, Neuren and Telix have also been contacted for comment.
In 2024, the US imported nearly $US233 billion ($357 billion) in pharmaceutical products, according to its Census Bureau.
The prospect of prices doubling could potentially increase costs of Medicare and Medicaid in the US.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said the Coalition strongly opposed the imposition of tariffs.
"It is deeply concerning that Australian pharmaceutical exporters will be subject to harmful tariff arrangements from 1 October," she wrote in a statement.
"The 100 per cent tariff announced today puts this critical trade at risk, as well as the jobs thousands of people it employs and the savings Australians have invested in this sector."
But Dr Felicity Deane, an expert in trade law at the University of Queensland, said the details of the tariffs should not affect access to medicines here.
"In terms of access to medicines in Australia, this is not going to affect us whatsoever," she said.
"The president cannot impose a tariff and expect any changes to come into place in Australia. It won't affect our PBS.
"There's some suggestions that PBS could use some efficiency gains, but this is not going to bring them out. That's going to come about from our own processes."
She said the details were "still hazy".
"I think an announcement on Truth Social really doesn't give us all of the details that we potentially need," she told ABC News Channel.
"Certainly not the details we need to make some big financial decisions."
Tariffs imposed on heavy vehicles, kitchen cabinetry
Mr Trump said the US would also impose 25 per cent tariffs on heavy-duty trucks and 50 per cent tariffs on kitchen cabinets.
He said the new heavy-duty truck tariffs were to protect manufacturers from "unfair outside competition" and support locally manufactured vehicles.
"Large Truck Company Manufacturers, such as Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, Mack Trucks, and others, will be protected from the onslaught of outside interruptions," Trump posted.
Mr Trump also said he would start charging a 50 per cent tariff on bathroom vanities and a 30 per cent tariff on upholstered furniture next week.
The new tariffs on kitchen, bathroom and some furniture were because of huge levels of imports that were hurting local manufacturers, Trump said.
"The reason for this is the large scale 'FLOODING' of these products into the United States by other outside Countries," he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump has long said that tariffs are the key to forcing investment in domestic factories.
But experts warn tariffs will drive up inflation.
"We have begun to see goods prices showing through into higher inflation," Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned in a recent news conference.
He added that higher costs for goods accounted for "most" or potentially "all" of the increase in inflation levels this year.
The consumer price index has already risen to 2.9 per cent in the US in the past 12 months, up from an annual pace of 2.3 per cent in April when Trump first launched a set of import taxes.
But Mr Trump disagrees inflation has occurred.
"There's no inflation," he told reporters Thursday.
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