Greens leader urges end to the AUKUS deal with ‘very dangerous’ Trump

Greens leader Adam Bandt says the government should get out of the AUKUS deal with the United States and explore other relationships in the wake of Donald Trump’s tariffs, warning it puts a “very big” target on Australia’s back.

The minor party has long opposed the AUKUS nuclear submarine project, which is expected to cost $368 billion, but Mr Bandt said the new tariffs imposed this week were a “wake-up call that we need to rethink our relationship with the United States”.

“We should get out of AUKUS, now is not the time to be hitching Australia’s wagon to Donald Trump — it puts Australia at risk and it is billions of dollars being spent on submarines that might never arrive,” he told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday.

Mr Bandt said the US president was a “very dangerous man” and it was “wishful thinking” to believe he would come to Australia’s aid in the event of a security threat.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has already ruled out walking away from the AUKUS deal as a response to the tariffs, describing it as a “good deal for Australia”.

The trilateral agreement with the US and UK would deliver Australia eight new nuclear submarines based on British design and with American technology, with the first five due by the middle of the 2050s.

The federal government had fought for an exemption to Mr Trump’s sweeping 25 per cent tariff on steel and aluminium imports, but on Wednesday the White House revealed that no country would be spared.

In the wake of the decision, Mr Albanese said it was “not a friendly act” and lashed the US president’s order as “entirely unjustified”.

But he said Australia would not respond with tariffs of its own, pivoting instead to a pre-election pitch at Australians to “buy local”.

The opposition has blamed the government for the failure to secure an exemption, as was the case under the Coalition during the first Trump administration, with Peter Dutton claiming he would be able to make a deal with the US president if elected at the upcoming election.

Trade Minister Don Farrell on Sunday said the key task for the government now was to “find out what it is that the Americans want in terms of this relationship … and then make President Trump an offer he can’t refuse”.

Senator Farrell, who spoke with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday, once again said that Australia would not pursue retaliatory tariffs on the US like some other nations.

“It hasn’t worked for any other country, why would it work for us?” he said in an interview with Sky News.

“He [Mr Lutnik] gave no assurances about what might happen in the next round of negotiations, our job is to sit down and continue to talk.”

Like Labor and the Coalition, Mr Bandt said the Greens don’t support imposing retaliatory tariffs on the US because it was clear they would not lead to Mr Trump reconsidering an exemption.

Instead he said there was “strength in numbers” with other countries impacted by the US president’s orders and “economically we should be exploring diversifying our relationship with those countries”.

“But in terms of a lasting arrangement now for the future, it has to be more based on what’s in Australia’s interest.”

Greens open-minded to formal hung parliament deal

The Greens are preparing for the possibility of a minority government after the federal election, which is due on or before May 17.

Mr Bandt said the party would be “open minded” to striking a formal agreement with Labor if that eventuated, as was the case in 2010, categorically ruling out working with the Coalition leader.

He said his preference would be to work with Labor to get action on the cost of living crisis and climate change.

“What people are wanting is more voices at the table to push Labor to act on some of these things that they’ve been ignoring,” he said.

“And the flip side is that when you have greater representation in parliament, we’ve all got to work together and cooperate to get outcomes for people and that would be the spirit we’d go into it with.”

The Greens wrote to the government on Friday with an offer to support Labor measures in return for an immediate slashing of student debt and a tripling of the bulk billing incentive.

Labor has vowed to knock 20 per cent off student loans as one of its main pitches to younger voters, but not until after the election.

Instead the Greens want to see the measure passed by parliament when it returns for three days later this month so the government can hand down a federal budget, the last opportunity for laws to be passed before Australians go to the polls.

For a university graduate with the average debt of $27,600, that would mean about $5,520 wiped from their loan balance.

Meanwhile, he said a hung parliament would be a “once in a generation chance” to push the major parties to act.

“There’s a reason that the experts are saying we are heading towards a minority parliament. People want real action on the climate, want real action on housing, on health care,” he said.

“And last time there was minority parliament, the Greens got dental into Medicare for kids. This time we could get in for everyone.”