LIVE: Election 2025 – China’s Xi makes a staggering offer to Australia over Trump tariff crisis

China’s Xi Jinping is offering to ‘join hands’ with Anthony Albanese to defend global trade against Trump’s tariffs.

The communist regime’s ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian wrote that China and Australia should join forces to maintain an ‘open and cooperative’ trade relationship.

Mr Qian does not spell out specifically what he meant by joining hands.

‘Under the new circumstances, China stands ready to join hands with Australia and the international community to jointly respond to the changes of the world, resolutely uphold international equity and justice, defend the multilateral trading system, ensure the stability of global industrial and supply chains, and maintain an open and co-operative international environment,’ Mr Qian wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.

He added that China was ‘committed to working with Australia to implement the strategic consensus reached by the leaders of our two countries’.

Asked about China’s ‘hand of friendship’ on Thursday morning, the Prime Minister responded coolly.

‘We will speak for ourselves,’ Mr Albanese told reporters. ‘Australia’s position is that free and fair trade is a good thing.’

He said Australia will be trying to ‘increase our trade with every country … There are opportunities for Australia, and we intend to seize them’.

Defence Minister Richard Marles rejected the overture.

‘I don’t think we’ll be holding China’s hand,’ he told Nine.

‘Our focus is on actually diversifying our trade. We’re doing a lot more in South East Asia with countries like Indonesia, which is a massive potential market on our doorstep.

‘We’re about to sign a new trade agreement with India. We’ve done one with the UAE, which is the gateway to the Middle East.’

He said Australia had doubled its trade with the UK over the last three years.

‘And sure, we stabilised our relationship with China and that’s important. But fundamentally we’re about building our trade around.’

Despite being asked twice, Defence Minister Richard Marles refused to directly address whether the Prime Minister had requested a call with Donald Trump since the US President imposed his tariffs.

‘We continue to advocate to the US through our system and through our representatives,’ Mr Marles told ABC’s Radio National.

‘Right now, the prime minister, as he should be, is very focused on the federal election and the conversation that he’s having and that we’re all having with the Australian people.’

It comes as the White House has claimed that dozens of countries tried to negotiate the new tariff regime.

Or, as Trump has put it, they are ‘lining up to kiss his ass’.

The US President sensationally walked back his decision on Wednesday US time, imposing a 90-day pause because markets were ‘getting yippie’ about it.

‘I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippie, you know, getting a little bit yippie, a little bit afraid,’ he said at the White House during an event honouring car racing champions.

‘The yips’ is a term used in golf to describe a sudden collapse in form.

Read more about what Trump’s reverse-ferret means for Australia here:

To the National Press Club in Canberra where Energy Minister Chris Bowen is facing off against Shadow Energy Minister Ted O’Brien.

Just as Mr O’Brien was delivering his opening address, he was interrupted by a man shouting in the audience.

Wire pictures (below) show he was carrying a now-familiar blue sign with the words ‘no new coal or gas’ written across it.

The protester was quickly bundled out by security.

The Opposition Frontbencher gamely tried to plough on with his address, before stopping.

‘Shall we just proceed and ignore?’, Mr O’Brien asked NPC President and Sky News’ Tom Connell who agreed.

It appears the man is a member of the group Rising Tide, whose members have so far crashed dozens of campaign events.

Anthony Albanese reportedly asked after Peter Dutton’s father, Bruce, upon hearing the news he had suffered a heart attack moments before the first leaders’ debate on Tuesday.

But the two leaders agreed that they would not refer to the plight of the 79-year-old during the debate, as that was the Opposition Leader’s wish, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.

Mr Dutton was close to tears when asked about his father on Wednesday.

‘He’s doing well, he’s stoic, he’s a tough bugger,’ the Coalition Leader said.

‘He’s worked hard all of his life and he’s been an amazing dad.’

The Prime Minister has travelled to the tourist destination of Green Island in the Coral Sea on Thursday morning.

The tiny tourist hotspot, which is nestled in the Great Barrier Reef, is located in the federal seat of Leichhardt in Far North Queensland.

It has been held by the Liberal National Party since 2010 but popular local MP Warren Entsch is stepping down, meaning the seat is firmly in Labor’s sights.

Mr Albanese is joined by the ALP’s candidate for the seat, the six-foot, 11 inches-tall former basketball star Matt Smith and Queensland Senator and the government’s Special Envoy for the Great Barrie Reef, Nita Green (pictured below).

Senator Green may have regretted not tying her hair up or wearing a hat for the short ferry ride from Cairns to Green Island.

A relaxed Mr Albanese was wearing a cap of his beloved South Sydney Rabbitohs, of course, while giving thumbs-up to members of the public on the shoreline.

The Prime Minister will be spruiking a new $10million Reef Educational Experience Fund to protect the Great Barrier Reef.

Deb Leonard, an independent Teal candidate for Monash, has released a cringe rap video in a bid to attract attention.

And hey, it’s working. We’re writing about it.

The mother-of-two makes a big song and dance about being independent and even rejects the name ‘Teal’, even though sshe is one.

She also tries to distance herself from Climate 200 founder Simon Holmes a Court.

‘Does Deb receive funding from Simon Holmes a Court?’, her website asks, before firmly answering, ‘No’.

But another question admits she does receive Climate 200 funding, which was founded – and continues to be funded – by Mr Holmes a Court, alongside other donations. So which is it?

Have a watch of Ms Leonard’s video below: