Q: Mr Albanese, do you trust Donald Trump?

Albanese:

Yeah. I have no reason not to. I’ve had a couple of discussions with him. And the last discussion we agreed on a series of words that he would give consideration. Great consideration was the words he used. And he did that. In the end he made a decision as part of the US administration to put these tariffs on every country. We got the lowest amount. But we made it very clear that was an act of self-harm by the US. The US enjoys a trade surplus with Australia. All this will do is put up costs for American consumers.

Q: Just while we’re at it, do you trust China’s President, Xi Jinping?

Albanese:

I have no reason not to either. In terms of the discussions we have had as one on one discussions have been important. China’s our major trading partner. One in four Australian jobs depends upon trade. It’s in Australia’s national interest to have a good economic relationship with China. We have different political systems. We do. That means different values and we have very different values with China. What I’ve said is we’ll cooperate where we can and disagree where we must but we’ll engage in our national interests.

Q: Mr Dutton, do you trust in Xi Jinping?

Dutton:

The relationship that we have with the President of China for the reasons the Prime Minister outlined. It’s important for our economic stability and sovereignty. We negotiated 11 free trade agreements and this Prime Minister has only delivered one. I want to see trust in the relationship and we have to stand up for our sovereignty and have a respectful relationship. I had a very good meeting with the Premier from China when he was out a couple of months ago.

Q: And you trust him?

Dutton:

Again, I spoke to him across the table. I haven’t done business with him and shaken hands and seen whether somebody has honoured that deal. I don’t have any reason to distrust.

Albanese:

Can I make a point in the agreements that I’ve reached with the Premier, they have all resulted in precisely what was agreed on both sides. And now as a result of that, $20 billion of trade with China has been restored. Because of the free trade agreement we signed. To be clear. It didn’t operate for the entire time in which your last term. There were no discussions. No phone calls, no meetings. No trade. There was a diplomatic freeze. In terms of the trade relationship it is something we established through the free trade agreement.

Dutton:

There were difficulties in relation to 5G. If you want to talk about that period. We took a decision as a government to exclude high risk vendors from 5G because we wanted to protect our telecommunication system. If the Prime Minister was suggesting – because it was bipartisan at the time – that wasn’t an appropriate step for us to take in our national interests, then he probably should say so.