It’s been revealed Australia’s ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd held a meeting with President Donald Trump at a golf club

The Coalition is demanding more details after it was revealed Australia’s ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd and Donald Trump had a brief meeting at the US President’s Florida golf club. The informal “pull aside” meeting occurred in the dining room of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on January 11 this year. Answers released on notice from senate estimates on Wednesday also said a diplomatic cable was produced and sent back to Canberra, which would most likely detailed the meeting. “Ambassador Rudd has professional relationships with and has met with a range of senior Administration officials,” the document read. The questions were taken on notice after Liberal senator James Paterson repeatedly quizzed Foreign Minister Penny Wong and officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trading during senate estimates in February. Senator Paterson, who is the Coalition’s finance spokesman, said the answer “barely scratches the surface of what was originally asked in Senate estimates where they engaged in excruciating obfuscation”. “How long was this meeting? What was discussed? Was it prearranged? Have Ambassador Rudd and President Trump spoken since?” he said. “The Prime Minister himself publicly disclosed this meeting occurred in a radio interview and this is a critical moment in our most important international relationship. “Australians are entitled to know what on earth happened at this meeting the government seems so sensitive about.” Senator Michaelia Cash, the opposition’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, shared Mr Paterson’s view. “The Albanese Government is being so secretive about this meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Rudd because it has now become obvious that the Ambassador achieved nothing to the benefit of Australia,” she told NewsWire. “Mr Albanese should come clean about the meeting and its outcomes.” Previously, Anthony Albanese had mentioned the meeting on January 17, confirming there had been “direct contact” between the US President and Australia’s top representative in Washington. Details of the meeting between Mr Rudd and Mr Trump comes as Australia faces the potential threat of being hit with 200 per cent tariffs on lucrative US pharmaceutical exports, which totalled $2bn in 2024. While Labor has said it aims to negotiate a complete tariff exemption, Australia currently faces levies of 50 per cent on steel, 25 per cent on aluminium, and 10 per cent on other goods, with Mr Trump also threatening 50 per cent tariffs on copper imports. On Wednesday, Nationals frontbencher Bridget McKenzie accused Mr Rudd of not “successfully” doing his job, and described Australia’s relationship with the US as “clunky”. “Is he successfully doing his job would be my question, because if he was, the Prime Minister would be able to pick up the phone and we wouldn’t be having to be worried about reviews in AUKUS, a $2bn export industry potentially (being) at risk but we don’t really know the details because we can’t just pick up the phone or get the meeting,” she told the ABC. “We’ve got … issues with copper, we’ve got issues with steel and aluminium, and we’ve got calls from the US to increase defence spending that we’re continually ignoring.”