SALLY SARA: The Prime Minister is due to speak with US President Donald Trump this morning and is expected to make the case for an exemption from sweeping tariffs on steel and aluminium. Around a billion dollars in Australian exports is on the line and the government is under pressure to secure a similar carve out to the one which was negotiated by former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during the first Trump presidency. There's now growing concern among other exporters about what the America First doctrine will mean for them. Resources Minister Madeleine King is my guest in our Parliament House studio this morning. Minister, welcome back to Radio National Breakfast. 

MADELEINE KING: Pleasure to be here, Sally. Thanks for having me.

SARA: Has the Federal Government had any more contact from any of your U.S. counterparts overnight?

KING: Well, we know there’s the phone call this morning with the Prime Minister and I can assure all your listeners that the Prime Minister will be acting in the best interests of all Australians when he has that conversation with President Trump. We are in constant contact with the US Administration, just like we are with governments around the world on all sorts of issues to specifics around who has called who, I don't have that. That's something officials do all the time. You can appreciate the time difference is, is pretty significant too between Canberra and Washington D.C. But I can absolutely reassure your listeners that our post, our diplomatic post in Washington is among the hardest working people I have had the pleasure to deal with in the former administration, and now with the incoming and now present Trump administration.

SARA: What's the argument that the Prime Minister is going to be making to Donald Trump to get a carve out for these Australian exports?

KING: Well, our terms of trade with the U.S. are positive in favour of the U.S. I mean, we gain from it as well of course we do. There's the trade in goods in which we buy more of American products than they buy of Australian products. But also the investment stories are really important. So, Australia invests over a trillion dollars into the US system in investments, whether it be a superannuation system or private capital as well. And equally we get around a trillion dollars of U.S. money into our system. So, it's a really mutually beneficial trade relationship that's been in place for, you know, some time. Of course we have the Free Trade Agreement, which also adds so much ballast to that relationship. And on top things, of course, the Prime Minister and the President can always discuss the really positive relationship we have around the AUKUS arrangement. In my electorate, we host HMAS Stirling where we have frequent visits from US submarines and other US Naval vessels. And, you know, that's another really positive part of our relationship and I look forward to hosting more and more people from the U.S. navy in the beautiful town of Rockingham.

SARA: Earlier today, I spoke with the Shadow Minister for Trade, Kevin Hogan. This is what he had to say.

KEVIN HOGAN: We wish the conversation between Albanese and Trump goes well for our steel and aluminium workers, but just, you know, to use coin that phrase “Team Australia” this is a Team Australia issue. Now, if Scott Morrison, who does have good relationships with the Trump administration, if Joe Hockey, who has experience in this before, I would certainly hope that Albanese, Prime Minister Albanese and Ambassador Rudd are using them.

SARA: Does the government have any plans to utilise Joe Hockey or Scott Morrison in these negotiations?

KING: Kevin Hogan, you know, referred to the idea of Team Australia, and, you know, I favour that approach in many parts of the political system. A Team Australia moment could have been last night if the coalition had decided to back the critical minerals of this country, but they did not. I will leave it to the Prime Minister to have his important discussions with President Trump today and then I've no doubt all the officials involved side and our side will be having in depth discussions. But of course, it's good for all sides of Parliament to work together in relation to our relationship with the US and I've no doubt that will continue.

SARA: With the tariffs that were threatened against Canada and Mexico. In some ways, that wasn't a trade dispute. The US wanted something else. Is there any sense that the US wants something else from Australia?

KING: Well, the truth is we've worked together on other things for some time and we'll continue to do so. For instance, on critical minerals and rare earths, these are really important parts of new supply chains that we want to develop with the US, and something multiple governments have been working on. Indeed, it was President Trump in 2017 who signed the first Executive Order around securing supply chains for the U.S. in critical minerals and rare earths, followed by another one in 2020. And this is something that Ambassador Kennedy, the former ambassador to Australia from the US, has spoken about before she returned home. So, you know, there's a lot that we can work on together. There's the trade I mentioned before, the investment work that we do together that I went through before. But on critical minerals and rare earths, this is really part of a great future between the US and Australia. We have Australian companies operating in the United States. We have US investment in Australia in critical minerals and rare earths. It's a matter of national security for us, equally, it's a matter of national security for them. I mean, it's something like four tonnes of rare earths are required in a Virginia class submarine. So, these are mutually advantageous things to pursue.

SARA: You're listening to Radio National Breakfast. My guest is Madeleine King, the Federal Minister for Resources. When are we expecting an update from the Prime Minister?

KING: Well, I will leave it to him to provide that update and I'm sure he will, as I said before, he'll work in the best interests of all Australians and Australian companies that employ in the resources sector and associated sectors, you know, many, many thousands of Australians, I'm sure we will be updated very soon.

SARA: What could these tariffs mean for these steelworks in Whyalla, which are already in a lot of trouble?

KING: Yeah the Whyalla steelworks is under a lot of pressure, there's no doubt about that and Minister Ed Husic is working really productively with the company running those steelworks. When these things come under pressure it adds a lot of uncertainty in a community for them and we've seen a number of different production places go into care and maintenance, but at all times when that happens, we really have to focus on what the alternatives are, because a lot of these are commercial decisions, they're based on historical facts and finances and so forth that have to be dealt with one by one.

SARA: On your Future Made in Australia reforms. As you were saying, the production tax credits passed through the Senate last night. The Greens supported it. What did you offer the Greens to get it through?

KING: Well, on the production tax credits, I've got to say, this is a big moment for Australia. It's a big moment for our resources sector, for an emerging resources sector backed up by our traditional resources sector of coal, iron ore and gas. Critical minerals are going to form a really strong part of how we build a better future for Australia and our regional neighbours. So, it's hard to underestimate the importance of this initiative that I've been working on, and our Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has been working with industry to create this policy. I'm glad the Greens supported it. So, they should. It's a good policy. I only wish the Liberals had come around because we know the WA Liberals were really disappointed in the decisions that Peter Dutton made on their behalf. And it just shows, I think, the lack of influence WA Liberals have in the Peter Dutton Coalition.

SARA: On the issue of climate. There are two reports published today warning that we've now entered a period where we're exceeding the global warming threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius. Does that mean that our policies regarding climate change need to be revised, our targets and policies here in Australia?

KING: No Australian government has done more to act on climate change than the Albanese Labor government- 

SARA: But emissions have gone up under your government.

KING: -we've introduced legislation - there has to be a pathway to net zero, and the quickest way to lose confidence in the transition among the wider community is to make sure people lack energy, or can't get the power they need to manufacture things. So we have to be really sensible in how we do have that pathway to net zero. 

SARA: But a lot of our products have gone offshore, Minister, we export coal and gas. 

KING: Yeah, that's right, but we also need the region to decarbonise, and each country has a pathway for that, including Japan and China and South Korea and Singapore, and part of their plans involve our gas. That's absolutely right. But they're displacing coal with gas, which is lower emission, and that's not the choice we may have made in Australia, we've got other options, we can turn to renewables, and we are, we're investing in renewables-

SARA: But you can see that emissions have gone up under your government. 

KING: Well, the report, you know, it says what it says. What I am assured of, and I know-

SARA: That's a yes. 

KING:  - and we've voted on is no government has done more for climate than the Australian Government under Anthony Albanese. So we'll continue to push emissions down. We've got the Safeguard Mechanism in that is pushing down emissions. When there is high demand for power and energy use, and indeed the critical minerals I spoke of earlier, we'll need some of these energy sources to make the green energy transition happen. So, you know, we have to work within our own emissions standards within our own goals but also help the region regional achieve those goals. 

SARA: But this data's showing that's what's currently being done globally is not enough. If Australia is shouldering its load, its responsibility, do targets need to be revised? 

KING: Well, I'm going to leave that for Minister Bowen to talk about more widely, that's his portfolio but the truth is we are working hard to drive down emissions, and so is industry. We can't do these things overnight. And we might want to, and I accept these reports exist around the emission levels, but people have to have confidence that they'll be able to have energy as well. So we need to work together to make sure the pathway is achievable. We have ambitious goals on climate. We've been put back 10 years by the former government. We've taken action in a pretty efficient manner in three years, and we're making inroads. 

SARA: Will Labor continue to approve coal and gas projects? 

KING: As we have constantly said before we became the Government and since we became the Government, where projects stack up environmentally and economically and they go through a regulatory process which is sound, yes, they will be. 

SARA: Minister, we'll need to leave it there. Thanks for coming into the studio this morning. 

KING: Thanks Sally, a pleasure.