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Australia’s failure to win an exemption from a growing trade war with the US sent local shares sharply lower for a second day running as the nation’s biggest steelmaker BlueScope sought diplomatic talks with Washington over the tariff standoff. 

Meanwhile, chemicals and explosives maker Orica said it would rather invest in the US than Australia amid cheaper energy prices along with $1 trillion of government incentives still to be spent fixing the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.

And a $750m upgrade of NBN Co’s fixed wireless service has so far yielded only an extra 100 customers , new figures reveal, despite promising to benefit “thousands of homes and businesses” and inject billions of dollars into the national economy.