Key events
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then Catie McLeod will be at the controls.
Kevin Rudd has vowed to keep fighting for exemptions from US tariffs, but told 7.30 last night that he and his “team Australia” has already “thrown everything” at talks with the Trump administration. Australia’s ambassador to the US told the ABC that the talks with the White House commerce team had been “tough”. Farmers fear they could be next in line for trade levies on Australia’s $6.2bn in meat exports, while Trump is slapping a 200% levy on European wine.
We have heard grumbling this week from Coalition insiders unhappy about what they see as an inadequate economic policy offering going into the federal election. Today we’re reporting that some in the Liberal and National camp fear that Peter Dutton’s vow to crack down on working from home policy is not “fully thought through” and could hamper the drive to win back teal seats.
Much of south-east Australia will experience very warm weather over the weekend with some inland parts of Victoria and NSW approaching 40C. The Bureau of Meteorology’s long-term forecast suggests the country is in for spells of “unusually” warm weather in the months to June.
The annual carve-up of GST revenue between the states is a pretty dry subject, but arouses much passion among premiers keen to balance their budgets (or assign blame for red ink). More on this soon.