The Trump-proof budget that doesn't mention Trump
The first federal budget since the US election shows some signs Australia is ‘Trump-proofing’ its economic and international strategies.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has unveiled a swathe of measures that appear designed to Trump-proof the Australian economy, as the returned US president's tariff threats spark fears of a global trade war.
But delivering his fourth budget on Tuesday, Chalmers declined to refer directly to the US President, framing boosts to Australian domestic industry as a response to broader uncertainty in the global economy. His Tuesday press conference was instead peppered with euphemisms: “storm clouds”, “global uncertainty”, “trade tensions”, “globalisation to fragmentation”.
One word looming over the federal budget went unspoken: Trump. It couldn’t be found in the budget papers, either.
But a major centrepiece of the pre-election budget is a $3 billion outlay, via the Future Made In Australia (FMIA) plan, to boost production of green metals like iron and aluminium — the latter of which has already been hit by US tariffs.
