Interview with Today Show

Sarah Abo, Host: For more on that escalating trade war, we're joined now by the Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong in Melbourne. Senator, good morning to you. Good to see you. So is this a failure from the Prime Minister?

Penny Wong, Foreign Minister: Good to see you, thanks for having me on. Can I just say Peter Dutton just demonstrated why he's not cut out for the job of leadership. Whenever Peter Dutton has an opportunity to back Australia, he always goes the political attack.

Some of his colleagues are saying 'we don't know what Peter Dutton stands for' - I'll tell you what he does stand for, always goes for political opportunism, never for real leadership. He's just not cut out for the job.

Now one of the points he made, and I think it's important here, is he talked About 2018 and the exemption that the Turnbull Government got after About a year of negotiating.

I want to make this point. Part of what the Trump Administration have said this time is that they made a mistake when they gave exemptions to their tariffs in their first term. So part of why they have not given exemptions to Australia and to other countries, to any other country, is they think they made a mistake in their first term. And you've our response to that. We don't think the tariffs are justified; we don't think it's in the spirit of our friendship.

Abo: I think, Penny, that sort of speaks to a wider problem which I want to touch on, but I guess first of all, if we just stick with steel for a second, did you find out About this through the President's Press Secretary yesterday along with the rest of the world?

Foreign Minister: That was when I first heard confirmation of the reports, but you would have heard my language over the last couple of weeks. I pointed out that we had a much harder hill to climb. We obviously know we had a very difficult set of negotiations, and we threw everything at it, but we did understand that fundamentally it's pretty hard when they say we made a mistake last time for us to get the same outcome again.

Abo: No, no, Senator, I agree with that. I guess the issue here though is that this is a comprehensive breakdown in relations with the US then. If you are hearing it officially for the first time from the Press Secretary in a press pack, not even directly from the President or his office ‑‑

Foreign Minister: I don't agree with that.

Abo: But you just said that. Is that not what happened?

Foreign Minister: No, sorry, I don't agree with your construction of that. Can I just make this point - I was the first Australian Foreign Minister ever invited to a US presidential inauguration, that was a great honour.

The very first meeting that the US Secretary of Defence had with any partner was with Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles. We had the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, in Washington also engaging with his counterpart. There has been unprecedented, high‑level engagement.

So I think it's wrong to do what Peter Dutton wants to do, which is to make this a political issue, as I said, always makes it political, never backs the country.

Abo: I think that ‑‑

Foreign Minister: Rather, it's to understand the thinking of President Trump and his view About tariffs. Now we don't agree with it, but I think that's important to recognise this is the path that the President has chosen.

Abo: No, no, I think that's all true, and obviously the Prime Minister has come out and said we disagree, he's been the strongest really, that we've seen overnight, that he's ever been when it comes to Trump, but it's just, Senator, as you'd appreciate, this is one of our strongest allies, so if we can't even get Donald Trump on the phone despite attempts to talk About this, it just don't bode well. And then you don't just look at steel, which is in a bigger picture sense not going to have that much of an impact here, it's what happens next, and all of that. And if he and we are conducting diplomacy through the press rather than over the phone or in person, then that is going to worry Australians.

Foreign Minister: Well, look, the Prime Minister's had two calls with the President, so let's everyone remember that, not just a congratulatory call, but a substantive call where he put Australia's case, and you might recall the President after that said he would consider Australia's case, would consider the proposition we had put. So there continues to be dialogue.

There is no doubt that decisions are being made very quickly in the Trump White House, that President Trump and his Administration have moved very quickly since they were elected.

Abo: And they're passing the message on to a press sec before they're passing it on to their allies, I mean that is kind of humiliating, isn't it?

Foreign Minister: Well, I think what we want to say is that, we have a difference of view on this, a very strong difference of view. The Albanese LAbor Government will always stand up for Australia's interests. This alliance is an alliance that has stood in place for many decades under Presidents and Prime Ministers of all political persuasions, and I think it's important we stay a little calm and considered when we think About how we deal with this issue.

Abo: Calm and considered aren't necessarily sentences that we understand when speaking with Trump, right? Senator, good luck with that. We'll check back in with you again soon, I'm sure. Thanks for your time this morning.

Foreign Minister: No worries, great to speak with you.