Labor's Trump card
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has revealed Labor will respond to Trump's trade pressure by boosting its Future Made in Australia policy. But will it be enough?
On the eve of the pre-election budget, Labor has given its strongest signal to date on how it will fight Donald Trump’s trade agenda — and it's not the obvious response.
In an interview with Capital Brief published this morning Finance Minister Katy Gallagher revealed Anthony Albanese’s Future Made in Australia (FMIA) green industrial policy would now go to “another level” in response to “a new administration in America that's really ripping up the rule book”.
The $22.7 billion FMIA package, which includes $7 billion in production tax credits for critical minerals processing, was unveiled in last year’s budget as a response to Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which was pouring billions of dollars into climate-related infrastructure.
We’ll have to wait until Tuesday night to know whether more funds will be allocated to FMIA, and that could be a risky move at a time of heightened concerns about government spending. But at the very least Gallagher’s comments signal Labor won’t respond to Trump’s moves by erecting retaliatory tariffs.
