Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Trade Minister Don Farrell and Industry Minister Tim Ayres were fronting media about the scrapping of 500 more nuisance tariffs, bringing the Albanese Government’s tally to nearly 1,000 cuts in just two years, when Khawaja’s name came up. His presence, and his private conversations with the Prime Minister and Treasurer, served as a quiet but weighty backdrop to a day heavy with economic policy.
“I have spent time with Usman Khawaja this morning,” Chalmers said. “He’s someone I’ve got a great deal of respect for. He’s a friend of mine… a great cricketer, but that’s not his best quality. He’s a wonderful humanitarian and a very fine Australian.”
The discussion, according to Chalmers, focused on the Middle East. “His views privately are the views that he expresses publicly… He’s a leader of real substance, not just in the faith community but more broadly.”
Khawaja has used his platform in recent months to call for tougher government action on gambling advertising and on sanctions against Israel. Asked whether there had been any commitments from the government, Chalmers kept it open. “We listen to him on these issues, as you’d expect.”
That wasn’t the only balancing act on show. The core announcement of the day, the abolition of a fresh set of low-yield, high-hassle tariffs, was as much about domestic business confidence as it was a signal to global trading partners.
“We’re a country that believes in free and fair trade,” Farrell said. “We’re putting our money where our mouth is.”
The measures, set to be finalised by the next Budget following public consultation, would streamline $23 billion worth of trade and are expected to save businesses around $157 million in compliance costs. The list of proposed tariff removals will be available on the Treasury website, with feedback open until 10 December.
Chalmers described the tariffs as “nuisance” measures that do more harm than good, often costing more to administer than the revenue they generate.
“Often we’re talking about very large sums of imports where there is only a tiny sliver of tariff collected,” he said. “So it often costs more to comply with the tariff regime than the government raises or benefits for industry.”
The move was also framed as a follow-through from the Economic Reform Roundtable, which has become a pet project for Chalmers. He pushed back against suggestions that this was the first major policy action to come out of that process, pointing instead to housing approval backlogs, reforms to the construction code, and environmental law acceleration.
Tim Ayres added a layer of industry reform to the day’s announcements, revealing that safeguards measures will now shift from the Productivity Commission to the Anti-Dumping Commission, making it easier to respond to unfair trade practices.
“I have… been working across industry,” Ayres said, “from smaller contractors in structural steel right through to big industry. And that requirement for a cohesive, effective anti-dumping regime… is at the top of industry’s list.”
Pressed about the global context, particularly a recent US decision on de minimis packages that disrupted postal trade flows, Farrell was firm.
“This is actually an action of self-harm by the American government,” he said. “We’ve said to the Americans, firstly, we don’t agree with what you’ve done… These operators were given less than a month to make changes to get their product into the United States.”
He added that Australia’s total trade with the US is smaller than the volume recently recovered from China, following the removal of $20 billion worth of trade barriers over the past three years. “Already $400 million worth of Australian crayfish has been delivered to China,” Farrell noted.
Chalmers reiterated that Australia’s tariff strategy remains domestic-focused but globally aware. “Tariffs are bad for the country that levies them,” he said. “They impose additional costs on the people and workers and businesses of the country that levies them.”
Asked about how much relief Australian consumers might feel, Chalmers was cautious. “We don’t want to overclaim on this front… It will have a modest impact on consumer prices. I think the more meaningful impact will be in terms of getting compliance costs and input costs down.”
And on a more personal note, there was humour. Farrell was asked about being labelled a “factional warrior” for the Liberal Party in the Sydney Morning Herald after his appearance at the Midwinter Ball. “I’ve been called many things in my life,” he deadpanned. “But this is the most…” Chalmers interjected, “Pretty much the least kind of thing you could say about someone.”
The press conference ended with Chalmers thanking organisers of the Ball for their work supporting charities like Fitted for Work and the Humour Foundation.
But the final word, again, belonged to Khawaja, or at least to his presence. A Test opener making time to speak privately with the nation’s leaders may not alter tariffs or influence anti-dumping law. Yet as Chalmers put it, “He thinks very deeply about issues in the Middle East… I take his contributions very seriously.”
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