Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says Donald Trump’s tariffs are a “bad day” for Australia because PM Anthony Albanese can’t deal with the US President.

“I just don’t think the Prime Minister has the strength or the ability to stand up to a situation that is unacceptable to us,” said Dutton after Thursday’s tariffs announcement.

Dutton claimed the Coalition would be able to negotiate for an exemption while Albanese “can’t get a phone call”.

“As we demonstrated when President Trump was first elected, we were able to negotiate for an exemption for Australia. We did that as a government,” he said.

“There is opportunity for us to negotiate, but we can turn a bad situation, where the Prime Minister hasn’t been able to stand up for our interests, into a positive outcome for our country but only if there’s a change of government after the election.”

Both sides of Australian politics tried to leverage the tariffs bombshell for their own federal election campaigns on Thursday.

The US will impose a blanket 10 per cent tariff on all Australian goods, including meat and minerals, as part of Trump’s so-called “liberation day”.

While all US trading partners have been hit with 10 per cent, dozens are copping extra tariffs as high as 46 per cent.

Albanese said the measure had “no basis in logic” and reinforced calls for consumers to buy Australian products.

“We will promote buying Australian is one way that we can respond. We can be proud of our products,” he said in Melbourne.

“We can’t control what the US administration determines, but we can engage with them.

“This is a decision that they have made. It’s one which we think, importantly, is not in the interests of the United States.”

The imposition of the tariffs was “not the act of a friend”, he said.

Dutton said Albanese had failed in securing a carve-out from the tariffs.

“If the Prime Minister had leveraged [critical minerals and defence] within the relationship before now, I think we would find ourselves in a different position today,” he said in Perth.

“We would have had greater connection and greater communication with the White House, and we demonstrated that only a few years ago.”

Albanese said the tariff situation was not a time for partisanship.

“What I’d like is for Peter Dutton to stand up for Australia and to back Australia’s national interest,” he said.

“His behaviour … is consistent with last time around on aluminium and steel, where Mr Dutton came out and was critical of Australia, not critical of the United States, for imposing these tariffs even though they were universal and across the board.”

Albanese met Australian golfing great Greg Norman, who is in Trump’s orbit, in Melbourne on Wednesday night.

“We are using every asset at our disposal: Ministers, people in departments, our embassy in Washington DC, our business community links and our other links as well to advance Australia’s national interests,” he said.

Anthony Albanese had dinner with Greg Norman on Wednesday night. Photo: Instagram

Dutton said Albanese had been “missing in action” in negotiating with Trump.

Greens leader Adam Bandt said the tariff decision was further proof the federal government needed to get out of the AUKUS deal with the US, which would provide Australia with nuclear submarines.

“Forget Trump’s “liberation day”, today should be Australia’s liberation day — when we finally liberate ourselves from being shackled too closely to Trump,” he said on social media.

Albanese started the day campaigning in Melbourne, visiting a pharmacy in the marginal seat of Wills, before flying to the Hunter Valley in NSW.

Meanwhile, Dutton visited Western Australia for the first time during the campaign. The Coalition needs to make inroads in WA, following large swings against it in 2022.

In other news, the leaders will go head-to-head in a debate on the ABC in western Sydney on April 16, the second of the campaign.

-with AAP