Australians are turning their backs on travelling to the US as tourism experts point the finger at the weak dollar and President Donald Trump.

There were 74,877 Australian visitors to the US in March, compared to 81,208 for the same period in 2024, US International Trade Administration data shows.

It was a 7.8 per cent year-on-year monthly fall and the steepest decline since March 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 738,000 Australians travelled to the US in the year ending January 2025, up 9.4 per cent.

But Dean Long, boss of the peak body representing Australia’s $69 billion travel industry, said interest in the US had cooled in recent months.

“The priced product in the US is very high when compared to the value that you can get across Southeast Asia in particular and even parts of Europe,” the Australian Travel Industry Association chief executive told AAP.

“We think think currency and value are the two things that are really driving that.”

The exchange rate for the Australian dollar last week fell below 60 US cents, its lowest level since April 2020, following Mr Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs.

But the dollar has recovered some ground this week and finished at 63.59 US cents on Tuesday.

Mr Long said it was too soon to tell if the “Trump effect” was flowing through to Australian travellers.

“When Trump was elected we didn’t actually see any significant change in booking patterns,” he said.

“We are starting to see some changes post Trump becoming president and some of the policies being implemented.”

A national survey of 1509 Australians aged 18 to 65 indicates fewer people were planning a trip to the US from March 15 to May 15 than the corresponding period 12 months ago.

The quarterly poll, commissioned by the Tourism and Transport Forum, had the US as the fifth most popular international destination for autumn 2024, with eight per cent of travellers headed there.

The US slid to seventh on the list for this autumn, scooping up less than six per cent of Australia’s overseas travel market.

“It’s the first time in three or four years that the US hasn’t been in the top-five destinations,” Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive Margy Osmond told AAP.

She put it down to uncertainty within the US, particularly on tariffs, cheap air fares to places such as New Zealand, Japan and Thailand, and the slumping exchange rate.

On the flip side, Ms Osmond said the exchange rate and perception of safety were keeping American visitor numbers to Australia strong at almost 80,000 a year.

Visitors numbers to the US in March were lower for every world region except the Middle East and eastern Europe.

In a briefing, Tourism Economics said policies and pronouncements from the Trump administration were contributing to a growing wave of negative international traveller sentiment toward the US.

“Heightened border security measures and visible immigration enforcement actions are amplifying concerns,” it said.

“These factors, combined with a strong US dollar, are creating additional barriers for those considering travel to the US.”

There was no doubt high-profile border security cases were grabbing headlines but it was a bigger issue for shorter-haul markets such as Canada and Mexico, Mr Long said.

“If you’re flying direct from Australia to the US, we’re seeing very, very few if any problems,” he said.

Australia’s Smartraveller website warns travellers a valid visa “doesn’t guarantee entry” into US and authorities have “broad powers” to reject admission “for any reason under US law”.

Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton will face off for the second time as the election campaign reaches its halfway point.

The ABC will host the leaders’ debate on Wednesday evening with the event to be moderated by Insiders host David Speers.

Both the prime minister and opposition leader will give opening and closing remarks and will receive equal time to respond to questions.

Debates will also be hosted by the Nine Network and Seven Network closer to the May 3 election.

ANU political scientist Jill Sheppard said while debates tended not to shift the dial for any leader or party, they could turn into massive traps for candidates who perform badly.

“It’s not so much that they say or do something particularly stupid, but that they have to be on the ball for a whole hour, and that’s really tough,” she said.

“What we find is that leaders tend to come through unscathed, but it takes a heap of preparation and a heap of co-ordination and strategy to make sure that they do come through unscathed.

“At the end of all that, you haven’t necessarily won votes, but you haven’t lost votes, and them not losing votes is the most important.”

Dr Sheppard said the most important members of the debate tended to be journalists who later disseminated what happened to a wider audience.

“If someone makes a mistake in the debate, it can derail the next couple of days of coverage,” she said.

The coalition will promise $6 million for the Alannah and Madeline Foundation to keep kids safe online if it is elected.

The foundation’s tools include age-appropriate teaching and learning resources and digital and media literacy skills for children aged four to 16.

“We need to ensure parents and children are equipped with the knowledge and skills that will help them safely navigate the online world,” Mr Dutton said.

The Liberal and Labor parties announced policies to target housing affordability at their official campaign launches.

Experts have labelled the plans inflationary and said neither tackled the supply aspect of the crisis.

Labor has pledged to allow first homebuyers the opportunity to purchase properties with a five per cent deposit.

The coalition has promised to make interest payments made by first-time buyers on new homes tax deductible for five years.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil and her opposition counterpart Michael Sukkar will go head-to-head in a debate at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.

OpenAI is working on its own X-like social media network, the Verge reports, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter.

The project is still in early stages and there is an internal prototype focused on ChatGPT’s image generation that contains a social feed, the report said.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been privately asking outsiders for feedback about the project, according to the Verge. 

It is unclear whether the company plans to release the social network as a separate application or integrate it into ChatGPT, the report said.

The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The potential move could escalate tensions between Altman and billionaire Elon Musk – the owner of X and an OpenAI co-founder who left the startup in 2018 before it emerged as a front-runner in the generative artificial intelligence race.

The feud has intensified in recent months. 

In February, a consortium of investors led by Musk made an unsolicited $US97.4 billion ($A153.2 billion) bid for the control of OpenAI, only to be rejected by Altman with a swift “no thank you”.

Musk had sued the ChatGPT maker and Altman last year, alleging they had abandoned OpenAI’s original goal of developing AI for the benefit of humanity – not corporate gain.

OpenAI counter-sued Musk earlier this month, accusing him of a pattern of harassment and attempting to derail its shift to a for-profit model. 

The two parties are set to begin a jury trial next year.

An OpenAI social network could also put the company in direct competition with Facebook-owner Meta, which is reportedly working on a standalone Meta AI service. 

In February, Altman responded on X over media reports on Meta’s plans, saying “ok fine maybe we’ll do a social app”.

Both Meta and X have access to a massive amount of data – public content posted by users on their social media platforms – that they train their AI models on. 

China’s Xi is making the case for free trade as he tours Southeast Asia, presenting China as a source of “stability and certainty”. 

He was welcomed to Hanoi with pomp and ceremony on Monday by Vietnam’s President Luong Cuong. 

He paid respects to Ho Chi Minh, the founder of the Vietnamese Communist Party, visiting his mausoleum on Tuesday before heading to Malaysia for a three-day visit before ending his tour in Cambodia.

In Hanoi, Xi met Vietnam’s Communist Party General Secretary To Lam, his counterpart, where he said the two countries “have brought the world valuable stability and certainty” in a “turbulent world”.

“As beneficiaries of economic globalisation, both China and Vietnam should strengthen strategic resolve, jointly oppose unilateral bullying acts, uphold the global free trade system, and keep global industrial and supply chains stable,” he added, according to a statement from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

China and Vietnam signed a series of memorandums on co-operation in supply chains and a joint railway project, and Xi also promised greater access for Vietnamese agricultural exports to China, although few details were made public about the agreements. 

US President Donald Trump complained about the meeting, which comes days after his tariffs upended global markets and left governments across the world scrambling. 

Reacting to the meeting Monday, Trump said China and Vietnam were trying “to figure out how do we screw the United States of America”.

In Malaysia, Xi is expected to discuss a free trade agreement between China and 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nation, as Malaysia is chair of the association in 2025. 

Xi will meet with King Sultan Ibrahim on Wednesday morning and the Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim later in the day. 

ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn told Chinese state media that the agreement would eliminate many tariffs between China and the bloc’s members. 

“We will bring more tariffs down to zero in many cases, and then expand to all the areas,” he said in an interview with CGTN, the state broadcaster’s English channel.

Anwar called China a “true friend” during Li Qiang’s visit in June and has visited China three times since he took power in November 2022.

China’s claims to the South China Sea are a point of contention with both Vietnam and Malaysia. Anwar vowed last September that Malaysia would not bow to demands by China to stop its oil and gas exploration in an oil-rich maritime area in the South China Sea as the activities are within the country’s waters.

Taco Tuesday is on the scrapheap as chicken dinners remain a winner for Aussie fast-food fans.

KFC owner Collins Foods will exit its struggling Taco Bell business in Australia and expand Colonel Sanders’ footprint in Germany as part of a major strategic shake up.

The organisation is in talks with Taco Bell International to find a buyer for the Australian business, after failing to make inroads against competitors Guzman Y Gomez and similarly named Taco Bill.

“As part of our commitment to sharpen our focus and align resources to profitable growth, we have made the decision to exit the Taco Bell business.,” Collins Foods chief executive and managing director Xavier Simonet told an investor call.

“We will continue to deliver high-quality food at accessible prices, leveraging the heritage of the KFC brand at a time when consumer trust has never been more important.”

Collins’ nearly 30 Taco Bell restaurants were behind a $36.7 million impairment on the organisation’s balance sheet in 2023.

The restaurant chain’s earnings before interest, tax and depreciation were down 1.3 per cent in 2024, after falling 3.2 per cent the year before.

As it looks to offload one chain, Collins is planning 40 to 70 new KFC stores in Germany, where it operates more than 200 outlets in an agreement with KFC parent and US multinational YUM Brands Inc.

“We are excited about accelerating expansion into Germany where the market remains under-penetrated, offering a clear runway for growth,” Mr Simonet said.

“Our partnership with YUM will fast-track our ability to scale in Europe, and we remain open to broader opportunities in this region.”

YUM has given Collins a period of exclusivity within certain trade zones in North Rhine Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg, the two regions home to 35 per cent of Germany’s 80 million population.

Cost pressures, labour costs and development roadblocks have capped success in the Netherlands, where restaurant numbers are expected to remain steady ahead of an expected impairment of between $25.5 million to $32.7 million flagged for June’s full-year results.

Australia remained the group’s key growth market, but given KFC’s already high proliferation Down Under, Mr Simonet was wary of cannibalising existing stores.

Collins Foods also announced a raft of executive changes, with KFC Australia chief operating officer Helen Moore stepping down after four years.

Taco Bell general manager and interim KFC Australia general manager Krystal Zugno will lead operations for both brands as general manager of Australian operations.

Hans Miete has stepped down as the group’s Europe chief executive, with Europe chief operating officer Chris Johnson to act as general manager until Mr Miete’s replacement is found.

Investors were uninspired by Tuesday’s investor call and CKF shares were trading 6.9 per cent lower for the day to $8.08 just before 2pm AEST.

Anthony Albanese is looking towards a historic third term as he rides high in the polls, while the coalition has been warned to quickly find another gear to win over voters.

The prime minister has denied his team are getting ahead of themselves as Labor widens the gap in two-party preferred polling, putting majority government within reach.

“I’m trying to climb a mountain”, Mr Albanese said in Tasmania on Tuesday, pointing to John Howard being the last prime minister to win after serving a full term in 2004.

“We’ve had a revolving door, I don’t think, objectively, that’s in the interests of Australia.”

Labor is ahead 54.5 to 45.5 per cent according to Roy Morgan polling and 53.5 per cent to 46.5 per cent in a separate Resolve poll published by the Nine newspapers.

Questions about potential hubris arose after Mr Albanese gave comments to The Nightly about seeking a third term following questions about his political future.

He said context was needed for his answer, saying he was asked about whether he would serve a full second term and what he would do at the end of that.

“I think that’s what the Australian people would expect of me,” Mr Albanese said.

“I don’t take anything for granted on May 3.”

The prime minister said if he won and fought on for a third term, he did not expect to be later knifed by an ambitious lieutenant, a fate that befell a series of predecessors in The Lodge.

“I’m not looking over my back, I’m looking forward and we have an incredibly united caucus,” he said.

“We went through the revolving door where you had people who won elections in ’07, 2010, 2013 and 2016 removed by their own party.

“I reckon the Australian people had a gutful of that.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton squarely positioned himself as the underdog as he pointed to Mr Albanese’s third-term comments.

“A first-term government hasn’t lost since 1931 … it’s hard to win after one term,” he told reporters in Melbourne.

Liberal insiders concede comparisons with Donald Trump have stalked the opposition leader at a time when the US president’s moves are increasingly unpopular in Australia.

Mr Dutton denied a Trumpian influence in his politics.

Pollster Kos Samaras said he did not believe voters were abandoning the coalition due to the Trump factor, rather young people were moving to minor parties because of a lack of economic and housing policies.

“His problems already started well before this, these younger voters don’t think he has an economic plan,” he told AAP, although he added that recent housing announcements might resonate with the younger cohort.

“They will need to commit all their messaging on one or two policies, particularly their housing policy, and laser focus it on the group they have problems with and they need to do it quickly.”

It is not too late for the coalition to turn dire polls around with an unprecedented 40 per cent of Australians remaining undecided, said Scott Morrison’s former media chief turned consultant Andrew Carswell.

“It’s gigantic, the biggest I’ve ever seen in an election context,” he said.

Pre-polling starts in a week’s time but people who voted early had already made up their mind, he said, meaning others could still be convinced to vote for the coalition.

“Everything that we see on the ground in those key electorates, people want to be convinced, they haven’t closed themselves to the coalition like they may have done in previous elections,” he said.

“What will convince them is the coalition hitting that economic message every single day of the last three weeks.”

The threat of Donald Trump’s tariffs loomed large over the Reserve Bank as it made the call to keep interest rates on hold, warning that US measures could lead to higher inflation.

Minutes from the central bank’s April 1 meeting, released on Tuesday, revealed the board was concerned about a “two-sided risk” to inflation following the US tariffs announcement and its global impact.

“Weaker global demand and the possibility of trade diversion away from the United States could reduce inflation in Australia,” the board’s minutes read.

“But a larger exchange rate depreciation or more substantial global supply disruptions could increase inflation.

“The effect of (tariffs) on sentiment and economic developments in Australia was not yet clear.”

The April meeting was held just days before the US president unveiled wide-ranging tariffs on goods from dozens of countries, including Australia.

Mr Trump later announced a 90-day freeze on any tariffs above a 10 per cent baseline rate after global share markets went into freefall amid fears the measures could lead to a recession.

The Reserve Bank chose to keep interest rates on hold at 4.1 per cent at its April meeting, but there is growing expectation the cash rate will be cut when it meets in May.

The board’s minutes said the tariff implications could lead to further complications for the global economic outlook.

“The extent to which these international developments would affect the Australian economy was a further source of uncertainty and depended on a range of factors,” the minutes said.

“The effects on GDP growth and inflation in Australia could be relatively modest.

“This reflected Australia’s limited direct trade exposure to the United States, additional policy support in China and Australia’s flexible exchange rate.”

The April meeting was the first since the Reserve Bank cut rates for the first time in almost five years in February.

While the bank said the financial situation had eased following the 25 basis point cut, board members said conditions were still restrictive.

The board said recent monthly inflation data painted a positive picture for quarterly data falling back to the bank’s target band of two to three per cent.

Trimmed mean inflation, which excludes volatile price movements, is the preferred measure for the Reserve Bank to see if inflation is at sustainable levels and whether interest rates should be cut.

The Reserve Bank also expressed optimism at recent sales figures.

“The pick-up in spending growth among components not affected by sales events suggested there had been a genuine improvement in underlying momentum,” the minutes read.

“More recent indicators signalled that some of this pick-up had been sustained.”

While a drop in labour force participation in February and the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.1 per cent was a surprise for the board, it said there were multiple factors behind the move.

“Given this was only one month’s data, it seemed possible that the declines were a result of volatility in the monthly labour force data rather than an indication of softening in labour market conditions,” the minutes said.

The central bank will meet on May 19 and 20 before handing down its next rates decision.

A Labor majority is becoming increasingly likely as the prime minister declares he’s in for the long haul, but a vast number of voters remain undecided.

Recent polls show Labor gaining momentum, widening the two-party preferred gap and putting majority government in reach as the coalition campaign falters.

Labor is ahead 54.5 to 45.5 per cent according to Roy Morgan polling and 53.5 per cent to 46.5 per cent in a separate Resolve poll published by the Nine newspapers.

Anthony Albanese insisted his team were not getting ahead of themselves with the May 3 election set to come down to the wire.

“We’ve got a mountain to climb,” he told ABC TV on Tuesday.

“It’s about halfway in the campaign today, it’s tough to win elections, that’s why no prime minister has been re-elected after serving a full term since 2004.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton squarely positioned himself as the underdog.

“The prime minister’s already talking about a third term,” Mr Dutton said in reference to comments Mr Albanese made to The Nightly about serving a full second term and seeking a third following questions about his political future.

But it wasn’t too late to turn dire polls around with some 40 per cent of Australians remaining undecided, former Scott Morrison media chief turned consultant Andrew Carswell said.

“It’s gigantic, the biggest I’ve ever seen in an election context,” he told AAP.

“Everything that we see on the ground in those key electorates, people want to be convinced, they haven’t closed themselves to the coalition like they may have done in previous elections.

“They’re there to be convinced and what will convince them is the coalition hitting that economic message every single day of the last three weeks.”

The third week of the campaign has so far been centred on housing and cost of living, with each party unveiling policies to target first homebuyers and tax relief, targeting younger and outer suburban voters doing it tough.

Labor will help people get into the market by allowing them to secure a mortgage with only a five per cent deposit, with the government guaranteeing the extra 15 per cent.

The coalition is offering tax-deductible mortgage payments for new builds.

Neither are popular with economists, who argue the policies will only boost demand and drive up housing prices as supply fails to keep up.

Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather, who is facing a battle to retain his Brisbane-based seat of Griffith, chastised the major parties for pushing ahead despite economists’ concerns.

“It’s a house fire and it’s burning the dreams of a lot of renters and first home buyers,” he said.

“What we hope is that we can get into minority parliament, keep Dutton out and push Labor to finally consider changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount.”

Labor has ruled out changes to negative gearing or capital gains.

Labor’s policy to introduce a $1000 instant tax deduction has also received a mixed reception, with the nation’s leading accounting body saying the instant deduction could save workers time, but might mean they miss out on the full refund they are entitled to.

“Taxpayers should be encouraged to take greater responsibility for their finances and tax obligations,” CPA Australia’s tax lead Jenny Wong said.

“Clicking a few buttons to get a basic deduction may be easy, but it is unlikely to be in the best interests of taxpayers or the economy.”

But George Washington University economics professor Steven Hamilton said Labor’s proposal would save the tax office and people money, in addition to moving to a system where no one has to itemise.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the witness stand on the first day of a historic antitrust trial to defend his company against allegations it illegally monopolised the social media market.

The trial could force the tech giant to break off Instagram and WhatsApp, startups Meta bought more than a decade ago that have since grown into social media powerhouses. 

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawyer Daniel Matheson called Zuckerberg as the first witness, as it seeks to prove that Meta acquired Instagram and WhatsApp to preserve its monopoly in the social networking space.

At the trial on Monday, Matheson focused on a communication sent to colleagues that illustrated Zuckerberg’s frustration with a lack of progress on developing a photo-sharing app to compete with Instagram’s.

“The way I read this message is that I’m not happy about how we’re executing on that project,” Zuckerberg said.

Matheson followed up by asking if that was because of Instagram’s rapid growth.

“That does seem to be what I’m highlighting,” Zuckerberg said, adding that he’s always urging his teams to do better.

Later in the day, Zuckerberg appeared frustrated when Matheson asked him about his concerns expressed about how fast Instagram was growing.

“I don’t have the full timeline of Instagram’s development in my head,” Zuckerberg said, when Matheson asked him about his mention of its growth. “You could probably get that better from somebody else.”

Matheson also asked about comments of plans to keep Instagram running, while focusing on Facebook and not investing in Instagram. Zuckerberg said he wouldn’t characterise it as a plan, and he insisted that Instagram wasn’t neglected.

“In practice, we ended up investing a ton in it after we acquired it,” Zuckerberg, who testified most of the afternoon, said. 

In opening statements, Matheson said Meta has used its position to generate enormous profits even as consumer satisfaction has dropped. He said Meta was “erecting a moat” to protect its interests by buying the two startups. 

Mark Hansen, a lawyer for Meta, said the FTC was making a “grab bag” of arguments that were wrong. He said Meta has plenty of competition and has made improvements to the startups it acquired. 

“This lawsuit, in summary, is misguided,” Hansen said, adding: “anyway you look at it, consumers have been the big winners.”

The trial is the first big test of President Donald Trump’s Federal Trade Commission’s ability to challenge Big Tech.

The lawsuit was filed against Meta — then called Facebook — in 2020, during Trump’s first term. It claims the company bought Instagram and WhatsApp to squash competition and establish an illegal monopoly in the social media market. 

Meta, the FTC argues, has maintained a monopoly by pursuing Zuckerberg’s strategy, “expressed in 2008: ‘It is better to buy than compete.’ True to that maxim, Facebook has systematically tracked potential rivals and acquired companies that it viewed as serious competitive threats.”

Facebook also enacted policies designed to make it difficult for smaller rivals to enter the market and “neutralise perceived competitive threats,” the FTC says in its complaint, just as the world shifted its attention to mobile devices from desktop computers.

Facebook bought Instagram — then a scrappy photo-sharing app with no ads and a small cult following — in 2012.

The $US1 billion ($A1.6 billion) cash and stock purchase price was eye-popping at the time, though the deal’s value fell to $US750 million ($A1.2 billion) after Facebook’s stock price dipped following its initial public offering in May 2012. 

Instagram was the first company Facebook bought and kept running as a separate app.

The Trump administration is kicking off investigations into imports of pharmaceuticals and semiconductors as part of a bid to impose tariffs on both sectors on national security grounds.

Notices posted to the Federal Register to be published on Wednesday set a 21-day deadline from that date for the submission of public comment on the issue and indicate the administration intends to pursue the levies under authority granted by Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Such section 232 probes need to be completed within 270 days after being announced.

The administration of President Donald Trump has started 232 investigations into imports of copper and timber, and probes completed in Trump’s first term formed the basis for tariffs rolled out since his return to the White House in January on steel and aluminium and on the auto industry.

The US began collecting 10 per cent tariffs on imports on April 5. Pharmaceuticals and semiconductors are exempt from those duties, but Trump has said they will face separate tariffs.

Trump said on Sunday he would be announcing a tariff rate on imported semiconductors over the next week, adding that there would be flexibility with some companies in the sector.

The US relies heavily on chips imported from Taiwan, something then-President Joe Biden sought to reverse by granting billions in Chips Act awards to lure chipmakers to expand production in the United States.

The investigation announced on Monday will include both pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients as well as other derivative products, the notice showed.

Drug makers have argued that tariffs could increase the chance of shortages and reduce access for patients. Still, Trump has pushed for the fees, arguing that the US needs more drug manufacturing so it does not have to rely on other countries for its supply of medicines.

Companies in the industry have lobbied Trump to phase in tariffs on imported pharmaceutical products in hopes of reducing the sting from the charges and to allow time to shift manufacturing.

Large drug makers have global manufacturing footprints, mainly in the US, Europe and Asia, and moving more production to the US involves a major commitment of resources and could take years.