Prime Minister the Hon. Anthony Albanese MP | Press Conference | 14/08/2026

Good morning. My apologies firstly for getting out so early. I had two previous arranged appointments in Sydney this morning. Late last night, I had a very productive, constructive, and lengthy and substantial phone call with President Trump of the United States. The President and I exchanged views on a number of global and regional issues, including the conflict in the Middle East and recent developments in the Pacific. This included briefing the President on the recent alliances that we have established, the coming into force of the alliance with Papua New Guinea, the signing of the alliance with Fiji, and the other arrangements that we have made right across the Pacific and Southeast Asia, all of which are contributing to a more peaceful, stable, and prosperous region.

We discussed the strength of our alliance, which is 75 years old this year, and continues to go from strength to strength. I said to the President, we have had two alliances in our first 125 years with the United States and with New Zealand, and then two alliances in the last 12 months. That says something about the work that we are doing in our own region. We reviewed the significant progress that has been made under AUKUS, which remains full steam ahead. We agreed it was a project that is and will continue to deliver benefits for the United States, for Australia, and for the United Kingdom.

We discussed the progress on pillar two of AUKUS, where we have agreed our first signature project focused on joint development of cutting-edge payloads and enabling systems for uncrewed undersea vehicles. I was able to brief the President on pioneering Australian defense technology, including uncrewed military systems, Ghost Bat and Ghost Shark. We were able to review progress of our agreement on critical minerals, which is making real progress, under which we are delivering more than 3.5 billion dollars worth of critical minerals projects. This includes the Arafura gallium project, which will be able to supply around 10% of the global demand for gallium.

We both welcomed the recent investment of US$400 million in Sunrise Energy Metals project near Dubbo. This is a project which is critical for the production of high-heat aluminum alloys used in fighter jets and spacecraft. We also discussed developments in technology, including artificial intelligence, and agreed to continue to work closely on these issues. We also discussed our economic relationship and noted the significant investments being made in each of our countries, which are building our respective sovereign capabilities. The President expressed his appreciation for the more than 180 firefighters that are currently in the United States to support with wildfires, and which builds on our long history of helping each other in times of crisis. I informed the President that I very much look forward to meeting with the incoming United States Ambassador to Australia, Dr. David Bryant. He expressed his appreciation of the relationship with our new Ambassador to the United States, Greg Moriarty, as well. It was a very productive and wide-ranging call. It went into a few personal issues, and one which demonstrated the strength of the relationship between Australia and the United States. It's very warm and productive. I told the President I would be talking about this this morning, and he wanted to pass on his best wishes to the people of Australia who he feels a great warmth towards. I was able to pass on my best wishes to the United States on their 250th birthday, as well as my personal best for the President's 80th birthday.

I did raise this issue. I always put forward Australia's national interest during these discussions, and the ask that I made of the President is that he consider full exemption, or at the very least no increase, which is there. We've been subject to the 12.5% tariff. I informed him about our record when it comes to dealing with issues such as modern slavery, the strengthening that we have put forward as well to look and hold companies accountable for the supply chain process as well. I was able to say to the President, of course, that we have a free trade agreement with the United States, so all goods and services are exempt from Australia. And over 20 years, the United States has had a trade surplus with Australia of 442 billion US dollars. There has been 3.6 billion dollars Australian investment in the US since we last met across a range of issues, including defense, critical minerals, rare earths, manufacturing, and I put the argument very much to the President as a friend of the United States. We would request that to be considered. We have a different position when it comes to tariffs. And of course, our position as a government is that the tariffs are an economic imposition and a cost on the countries that are imposing them. And we support free and fair trade. The President of course has a different position that he's expressed on many times. But I did ask that Australia's position as a friend of the United States be considered, and the President agreed that he would give consideration to my request. And we of course will have further engagement on at least there'll be two visits to the United States this year to New York, to the United Nations, where we will have contact there. And of course the G20 is being hosted in Florida in December.

We had an extensive update from the President and I appreciated his perspective. You will understand it is classified, so I won't be going into the level of detail. It's up to the President to outline the US's strategy when it comes to military. I expressed our view that we wanted to see an end to the conflict there. We did and continue to say that Iran shouldn't be allowed to have nuclear weapons. That represents a huge risk for the region. We've seen with Iran's behavior during this war where they have not just engaged with the United States and Israel, but have launched attacks on a range of countries in the region, including the UAE. I was able to outline to the President as well Australia's contribution including the E-7A aircraft and the other assistance that we've given to the UAE. It is having an impact on Australia and indeed on the global economy. The President expressed his confidence going forward.

The President has a different position on tariffs that he has expressed on a number of occasions over a number of years. We believe very much that tariffs are not in the interests of either the country that is having them imposed on them or the country imposing them. We have a different view, a different perspective. What I was able to do was put the case to the President not in ideological terms because the position is what it is. But I was able to put to the President that Australia has a position not just the $442 billion trade surplus which is occurring, but was also able to talk about our superannuation funds which the President has since our meeting in the White House. You will have seen on a number of occasions the President I think publicly certainly as well as privately has expressed his support, if you like, or acknowledgement of the significance of Australia's superannuation funds, many of which have a big presence as well. AustralianSuper, for example, our biggest industry fund, has a presence in an office in the United States. It's no accident that we chose Heather Ridout as our Consul-General in New York, and that the President knows—and I repeated last night—that our funds will grow to 5.5 trillion dollars over this coming decade. That represents a very significant fund. They make decisions of course in the interest of their superannuants, in the interest of retirees, but that also represents an investment vehicle from Australia including into the United States. And so I put the case as strongly as I could. It was a constructive discussion about why Australia should get at least the best treatment. I note that we did have as good a deal as any country in the world with the original tariffs that were announced. I'll just go around.

Western Australia deserves a fair deal. And they contribute to our national economy. They're a driver of our national economy. This interim report that I think went to the states and territories yesterday and is being released soon is just that, an interim report. There'll be a final report before the end of the year. This is a report that was commissioned by the Morrison government, not by our government. We'll wait and see what they say at the end of the year, but I assure Western Australians of this: you will get your fair share because your work and what you contribute to the national economy really counts. And importantly, I make this point as well, in your question, you've framed it absolutely right. The Commonwealth picks up the additional costs to the states and territories. The no-worse-off guarantee to the states and territories ensures that WA has got additional funding, but not at the expense of other states and territories.

That they're over the top, and they need to be wound back. In particular, some of the inducements that will encourage people into the system are just not on. They need to be wound back. We're going to wind them back. And we have a position that we took to our ALP National Conference in Adelaide along those lines. Look, we're working constructively across the parliament to put in place these reforms. They are important. They are important that people will draw an analogy with the range of other activities. The problem is addiction. And when someone has an addiction, if there are inducements and they're encouraging that addiction, that's a bad thing. Just as you know, there's nothing wrong with people having a punt on a Saturday. There's nothing wrong with people having a beer after work. The problem is if it's an addiction, whether it's gambling, whether it's alcoholism, whether it's drug addiction, that is where problems arise and it can cause massive issues for people. The government's conscious about that, and that's why we have already, before this legislation, put in place more reforms and restrictions on gaming than any government in the previous 122 years since federation. The most important of which I think is BetStop. That has been a huge success, but we'll also look in the amendments that we're considering, and we'll go through our process respectfully in our caucus as will other parties here. But can I say I welcome the constructive discussions which have taken place.