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The Morrison government’s climate policy may harm Australia’s ability to push for its own priorities with its top security ally the US when senior ministers meet in Washington this week, analysts say.
Marise Payne and Peter Dutton will meet with the US secretary of state and defence secretary for Thursday’s face-to-face “Ausmin” talks – the first during the Biden administration. The talks are tipped to result in an expansion of the rotational presence of US Marines in Darwin.
Payne and Dutton will likely be asking the Biden administration to maintain a strong US focus on the Indo-Pacific and to support Australia against “economic coercion” from China, according to experts from the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. Australia is also seeking defence industry cooperation.
Susannah Patton, a research fellow at the US Studies Centre, told a webinar today that the US priorities would include securing support for the Biden administration’s approaches to China and agreement on a clear statement on the need for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. That, she said, was “part of a broader administration effort to shore up deterrence against Beijing”.
Patton said climate change would be another priority for the US, with the Biden administration “looking to pull every lever that it has to address climate change”. The gap between the US and Australia on climate policy was “an unfortunate perception that Australia should be looking to change”:
Patton:
Our position on climate change arguably makes us a less attractive partner and perhaps gives us less standing to push for our own asks that we would have of the US. And, moreover, a failure to address climate change within the alliance context also risks undermining public perceptions of the alliance, because we know that climate change is an important priority especially for younger generations.
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23:55
Australia’s first dose rate at 68.5%
More than 14.1 million Australians have now received at least a first Covid vaccine dose, which is 68.5% of the eligible population.
Less than 400,000 more Australians need to get their initial jab to put Australia beyond the 70% first dose rate.
Updated
23:37
While we’re talking numbers, the RBA governor Philip Lowe says the Delta variant is a significant setback for the economy, but growth will be stronger next year, AAP’s Colin Brinsden reports.
Lowe says the impact of lockdowns in Australia’s major cities will result in a major economic contraction in the September quarter:
It is likely to be at least two per cent, and possibly significantly larger than this. This is a major setback, but it is likely to be only temporary. We expect the economy to be growing again in the December quarter, with the recovery continuing into 2022.
He expects economic activity to be back on its pre-Delta track by the second half of next year.
But it wouldn’t be surprising to see the unemployment rate in the “high fives” for a short period of time.
The jobless rate had fallen to a 13-year low of 4.6 per cent in July.
Against this backdrop, Lower said the RBA’s monetary policy package was working, by keeping funding costs and lending rates low across the economy.
At last week’s monthly board meeting, the central bank went ahead with reducing the amount of bonds it purchases each week to keep borrowing rates low to $4 billion rather than $5 billion.
It will review this program in February rather than November as earlier announced.
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