Australia’s former U.S. ambassadors say Trump administration policies will likely ripple through locally and force a rethink of Australia’s economic policies.
Former Ambassador to the U.S. Joe Hockey served as the country’s top diplomat to the United States from 2016 to 2020, during the previous Trump presidency.
“America is the biggest economy in the world,” he told the Today show on Jan. 21 from Washington D.C.
“When they cut company taxes, if Australia doesn’t follow, we become massively uncompetitive.
“If they cut personal income tax, it’s going to have an impact in Australia. If they get rid of regulation—and God, there’s so much red tape here—then it’s very hard to do business in Australia rather than in America.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has committed to slashing the U.S. corporate tax rate to 15 percent, following cuts in 2017 of from 35 to 21 percent.
Hockey said Trump 2.0’s climate and social policies would also force a local rethink.
“He’s already said he’s going to tear up the Paris climate agreement so you can see business already moving in a different direction here in the U.S.,” Hockey said.
“And I mean, the social changes here are going to have an impact in Australia as well.”
In his inauguration, Trump reinforced his position on the gender debate.
“As of today, it will hence forth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders—male and female,” he said.
Hockey served as a North Sydney MP from 1996 until 2015, and was Australia’s treasurer under former leader Tony Abbott from 2013 until 2015.
Meanwhile, fellow former ambassador to the U.S. Arthur Sinodinus (2020-2023) said there would be both risks and opportunities that would emerge from Trump’s America.
He also said opportunities could widen for Australia to work with the United States on critical minerals.
“They’re obviously going to compete with us on energy,” he said.
“Trump is wanting to produce even more oil and gas, and as part of his anti-inflationary policy, reduce energy prices in the U.S. and export a lot of energy abroad, which will have a broad impact on energy prices across the world.”
