NADIA MITSOPOULOS: And on this public holiday Monday it is 26 minutes to 9. Well, US President Donald Trump appears to have blindsided many when he announced he would double the tariffs on Australian steel from 25 per cent to 50 per cent. It will also apply to aluminium, and it will come into effect on Wednesday. Now, remember, this comes on top of a 10 per cent levy on all Australian goods, so the question being asked this morning is: what will the impact be? 

Let’s go to the federal Resources Minister Madeleine King. Minister, good morning. 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Good morning, Nadia. Happy WA Day to you. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: And to you, too. And like us, you are also working, so thank you for your time. 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: I’m working this morning. I’ll do a bit of gardening before the rain hits, I think. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Well, this decision by the US President, has this blindsided your government? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, it’s not good and not the happiest thing to read about or hear about, as the Trade Minister has – put our position quite clearly that it’s not the way to treat a friend or an ally. But having said that, and I’ve heard the comments from the relevant association, that it won’t have a huge impact on domestic steel producers here. But, nonetheless, it’s disappointing to see tariffs ramped up again in this fashion. And it’s not the way we would like, as a trading nation that’s benefitted so greatly from the globalisation and open trade in this world, to see these tariffs go up in such a sort of sudden fashion is just not helpful for global growth more generally, whether it be steel and aluminium, but other things as well. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: And it does come from a close ally. How does that sit with you? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, it’s disappointing, of course. And we won’t seek to reciprocate by putting tariffs on American goods. The truth is, we buy more American products than they buy Australian products. So the rationale behind it is not that sound and also – mind you, it’s not that clear, either. But the thing is, the greatest cost when you introduce tariffs – this is always the case – is on the people that ultimately buy the product, and that is going to be American consumers. So no matter what you put a tariff on it just increases products in the country applying the tariffs. So it’s probably going to be more disappointing for US consumers than it is for the steel industry here itself. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Okay. Would there be any knock-on effects for WA, I guess, in the iron ore industry, for instance? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, our iron ore goes into China, of course, and they will have that effect on their steel exports into the US. But we have to remember that China is a huge consumer of that steel that it produces using our iron ore, too. So we would expect that to continue well into the future. China has got a – whilst it’s slowing growth, it still does – it does grow and is a large population and it’s hard to say what the knock-on effects will be, to be honest. And the main thing is to make sure that we have a resilient economy that – and we have a lot of other products, of course, that we export as well that can balance out these things. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Madeline King is my guest this morning. She’s the federal Resources Minister. At 23 to 9. And are we right in assuming that this increase doesn’t fall – and this particular tariff doesn’t fall under that US trade court ruling that struck down President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, to be honest, I’m still looking at that, and I’m sure the Trade Minister is right on top of it. But it is a new tariff post that decision, so I’m just not sure how that works out within their legal system. So, we’ll have to wait and see what the advice is on that. Having said that, the Trump administration is contesting that court decision, so it just adds a greater uncertainty around that. 

And so what my view is when there is these uncertainties being produced by another government in another country, it’s really very important that Australia – to use a sporting analogy – plays its own game. So we are going to be measured and thoughtful about our responses to these trade impositions, just like we were when coming into government three years ago dealing with some of the trade bans that China had introduced that have all now been resolved. So, I think we’ve just got to make sure we are very consistent in how we think about trade as an Australian government and an Australian community, that its invariably good, it lowers prices for consumers here to be able to access products from around the world, but also ensure that we have a resilient economy so that we can see through these bumps that invariably are going to happen when there are different governmental systems and attitudes right around the world. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: On that point then, what is the risk? Because I notice WA Premier Roger Cook will meet with some of the business figures on Wednesday to discuss this global uncertainty and the potential impact on the local economy. I’m wondering, what could the impact be? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, I think it’s really important what the Premier is doing, is to have those discussions with industry, because as the exporters, they see the studies and the economic work that goes around what those effects actually might turn out to be. So it’s an important discussion for the Premier to have. And that is the great challenge, isn’t it – is trying to make sure we have that resilience in the state economy to come up against these kind of challenges. 

And so I don’t have all the answers there, Nadia. I know that’s not particularly helpful, but that’s why consulting with people in industry and in the trade space is going to be really important for the Western Australian government but equally for us as a federal government. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Will the Prime Minister then try to have a face-to-face meeting with the US President at the G7 meeting in Canada? Has he asked for one? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Look, to be honest, I am not sure what the Prime Minister’s diary is working out to be at the G7. What I know is that at that meeting of the leaders of those – the largest seven economies in the world it’s very tightly held and there’s a lot of negotiations that goes around to each leaders’ calendars and so forth. So I’ve no doubt there’ll be discussions at some point, and important ones at that. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Okay. If I can just look – Madeline King is my guest this morning, the federal Resources Minister – the approval of the extension of the North West Shelf until 2070, or provisional approval from the Environment Minister, I guess what people are trying to understand is why that facility is needed for so long and what that says about our transition out of fossil fuel. Is that going to take longer than initially thought? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, the North West Shelf is an existing facility. As many of your listeners will be aware, it’s been on, processing gas for a number of years, and this is an extension to an existing what we call brownfields site. It’s not a new plant, it’s not a new reserve; it is keeping the refinery enabled to produce what it already produces. 

And what’s really important in regard to emissions is that everyone should understand that the North West Shelf is obliged to reach net zero by 2050 under the safeguards mechanism. So that’s what it has to operate on and this conditional approval is separate to that matter of the safeguard mechanism but it’s still – that’s an overarching obligation of the North West Shelf facility, which we legislated in the last term of government under the reforms to the safeguard mechanism. So I just want everyone to be really clear of its obligations to be at net zero by 2050. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Because there’s also concern that transitioning out of coal by 2030 might be too ambitious and potentially leave us short of our energy needs in WA. Is that a concern? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, the state government is very much active in the space of making sure that energy will be available to Western Australians. There’s no doubt gas from the north will fill that space as coal, which has a much higher emissions content, falls out of our energy system. And what enables that is also longstanding infrastructure, so the Dampier to Bunbury pipeline is a really important part of making sure that the gas that does come from the north goes into the south and is able to displace that coal when those coal-fired power stations do eventually shut down. And the spurs that come off that are able to support energy needs into Kalgoorlie and so forth. 

So the State Government has been planning this now for some time and is very well aware of the challenges, and that’s why they’ve also, of course, through the Tinley report, made some changes to the domestic gas reservation. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Okay. UNESCO looks like knocking back a bid to heritage list rock art near Karratha because of the impact of emissions. Do you see this as a warning about the threat industry has to the environment up there and can this be ignored? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, well, it’s a draft decision and it’s disappointing. I think there is anomalies that we’ll be pursuing with the World Heritage Centre in relation to that. So what we’ve seen up on the Burrup is I think it was just over a couple of years ago the state government announced there’s not going to be any further development on the peninsula. The industrial sites that had been reserved prior to that time are now going to be added to the Murujuga National Park. 

So the state government is doing important things to preserve the park into the future. The Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation has got a strategic management framework that it’s endorsed for the protection of the cultural landscapes. So there’s a lot of activity going on by the State Government, the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, all backed in by the Federal Government. And I suppose it’s disappointing that the voices of the Traditional Owners have not been heard in the discussion by UNESCO. But that’s our job to make sure that now happens and is reflected in further discussions by the World Heritage Centre. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Okay. And if I can just go back on gas for a moment as well – 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, sure. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Because North West Shelf it goes till 2070, we have a domestic gas reservation policy here. Which I appreciate is a policy, not legislation, but Woodside doesn’t meet that. And that’s causing quite a bit of anger from people saying they should absolutely be reserving 15 per cent of that gas for WA, and they don’t. 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, the Tinley report went through this and identified that, and there is no doubt vagaries in that domestic reservation policy that allows providers to front end or back end that commitment. And we know Chevron through the Barrow Island project and also at Onslow have a different percentage going into the domestic gas reservation. There’s also the issue that not all gas that is entitled – or should be going into the reservation scheme can be consumed at the moment it goes in. So – and that’s an issue around literally the molecules that flow down that pipe, so to speak, or south in that pipe. 

But the important thing about Woodside is they will be obliged to meet those commitments, and the State Government is well aware of who supplies what, and that’s why they had that legislative – sorry, the parliamentary inquiry chaired by the former member for Willagee Peter Tinley, and that’s been a really important examination of the domestic gas reservation scheme. 

And I would always add that the WA State Government’s reservation scheme is now the envy of the nation as we see east coast gas supply kind of struggling to meet the need of the southern states as their oil and gas fields have depleted in the Bass Strait. So it’s a very good scheme. We know it can be improved, and that is what the Tinley report identified, and the Perth Basin work for onshore gas will supplement that gas supply as well. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: All right. I’ll leave it there. Good to have you on the show. Thanks for your time. 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Thanks, Nadia.