Being a sovereign nation should mean we can tell the yanks they can fuck off.

Unfortunately they have their corporate and defence hooks into us really badly.

If the current US administration has any global impact it is this: We all need to wake the fuck up, diversify our strategic relationships, and reduce our dependence on the US.

You're turning your country into a big fat carcinogen factory and want to fuck off the world leaders in cancer treatment. Spectacular self pwn.

US-manufactured products should be allowed to compete on an equal basis with Australian-produced goods, consistent with the WTO [World Trade Organization] and US-Australia Free Trade Agreement,” he said.

Research and development tax concessions in Australia, France and Spain were described as conferring advantages to local firms “that the United States is hard-pressed to match”.

Um, isn't this what the US is ostensibly trying to do to everyone else with their tariffs? Advantage home grown products over international ones?

It's almost as if it's not supposed to be free or fair, it's just about the US extracting as much money from everyone in the world that they can get away with.

The National Taxpayers Union, a conservative lobby group, called consumer drug price controls in countries such as Australia “socialised medicine”

That's riiiiight! Who's a clever little conservative? Is it you??

"In Australia, prices for pharmaceutical medicines are capped at $31.60 if listed on the PBS. A 2024 report by research organisation Rand found that US drug prices were, on average, about 370% higher than in Australia and 278% above the OECD average"

The American pharmaceutical system is broken. The U.S. spends significantly more on developing drugs than other developed nations, partly due to unfettered regulation. This spending is attributed to exploitative capitalism and a lack of price controls. The fragmented nature of the U.S. healthcare system created this monster, and now these mega-corporations can't stop the "sugar high." It's total BS.

Liberal senator Maria Kovacic called for clarity from the White House.

“The reason we don’t know what is going on is because our government and our prime minister don’t know, because they don’t have the strength of relationship with the United States that they should have.”

That's some weak sauce from the Liberals. And they know it.

Sometimes I want to live in this horror world that conservatives have conjured up to whine about. Socialised medicine, now that's a lovely idea.

I know we have some subsidies and medicare and all that, and that's a start, but oh just imagine if it were everything!