Australia news live: Shorten says Trump treating free world like ‘a reality show’; inquiry into Northern Beaches hospital after boy’s death


Bill Shorten suggests retaliation against Trump administration’s tariffs

Former opposition leader Bill Shorten says Donald Trump is leading the free world “as if it’s a reality TV show” and his administration’s tariff regime won’t “help anyone”.

Bill Shorten believes, eventually, Australia will have to push back on the tariffs being imposed by the Trump administration. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Shorten, now the chancellor of the University of Canberra, was on Seven’s Sunrise earlier this morning where he said the tariffs were “unjustified”.

Like ordinary civilians, which I am these days, it’s like drinking from a fire hose watching Donald Trump lead the free world as if it’s a reality TV show.

The prime minister has correctly said – and I think Peter Dutton has agreed with him – these tariffs are unjustified.

We don’t dump our material in America. We pay first-world wages. So our aluminium and steel industry – and I used to be their union leader – doesn’t deserve this treatment from our ally.

Shorten also suggested Australia should consider retaliatory measures if the US refused to budge, saying:

Tariffs don’t help anyone, but if President Trump thinks he can push other countries around, sooner or later you have to push back.

At the end of the day, if they keep putting tariffs on all of our goods, then we’ve got to reciprocate dollar for dollar, tariff for tariff.

This is not the argument that Australia wants to be in, but I’m confident this government, and I think all reasonable Australians, will say at a certain point, “You push us, we push you”.

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Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred causes heavy beach erosion at Surfers Paradise

Speaking of Surfers Paradise, we’ve got some photos of beach erosion caused by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, last weekend. The wild weather washed huge amounts of sand from the famous coastline.

Paradise denied? Gold Coast beaches are no longer postcard picture perfect. Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAP

Currumbin Beach on the Gold Coast was also badly affected by erosion, as you can see here in this photo from Monday:

Wild weather and ocean swells have carved the dunes into sheer cliffs. Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAP
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